Mary Shaw

At a September town hall meeting in New Mexico, a citizen asked President Obama the question "Why are you a Christian?"

Obama replied that he is "a Christian by choice," noting that his family didn't regularly attend church. He explained that he became a Christian later in life "because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead -- being my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me." Etc.

Some might see this as a defense against all the hysterical right-wing assertions that Obama is a "secret Muslim". I see it as an honest and reasonable answer to a question. But I question the validity of the question.

As I see it, the real problem with Obama's religion is that it is an issue at all.

It shouldn't matter whether Obama is a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Scientologist, or a Zoroastrian. (Here come more rumors now.)

And, while I am not a constitutional attorney, it seems to me that to question his religion is unconstitutional.

Contrary to the claims of the religious right, the United States of America was not founded as a Christian nation. Many of our most influential Founding Fathers -- including Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, James Madison, John Adams, and Thomas Paine -- were not Christians. And they knew from their experiences in England what kinds of problems can arise when religion and government are too closely related.

So they deliberately designed this nation to avoid the problems of theocracy. And here is why all the concerns about Obama's own religion are, in my view, unconstitutional: As most people are hopefully aware, the First Amendment contains a clause prohibiting Congress from making any law "respecting an establishment of religion." But, even more germane to the issue of religion and public office, our Founding Fathers wrote in Article 6, paragraph 3, of the U.S. Constitution that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

There it is in writing.

But it conveniently seems to escape so many on the right.

I suspect that much of the fuss about Obama's religion stems from fear which stems from ignorance. But we should not allow ourselves to be governed by fear and ignorance.

Sadly, however, as long as the media and the Powers That Be continue to allow religion to be a campaign issue, however unconstitutional that may be, we can only expect more of such scrutiny. And more intolerance. And more hate.

Mary Shaw is a Philadelphia-based writer and activist. She is a former Philadelphia Area Coordinator for the Nobel-Prize-winning human rights group Amnesty International, and her views on politics, human rights, and social justice issues have appeared in numerous online forums and in newspapers and magazines worldwide. Note that the ideas expressed here are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Amnesty International or any other organization with which she may be associated. E-mail: mary@maryshawonline.com