Avoid hysteria about religion

Someone said to me that the possibility of the U.S. having its first non-Christian president is a sign of the apocalypse. This is the latest of numerous comments I have heard expressing very disturbing religious hysteria. I do not endorse any candidate or religion. To set the record straight, Mormonism meets the definition of a Christian religion whether or not other Christians like it.

Also, Abraham Lincoln made it quite clear that he disagreed with Christianity. So if the country survived a non-Christian president during the Civil War, it can again. We all have a non-Christian to thank for the end of slavery. The current hysteria is very similar to the hysteria of 1960 when Kennedy ran against Nixon. Kennedy was the first, and so far only, Catholic president. Protestant ministers across the country railed that democracy would be destroyed by the pope running the U.S. through JFK as a puppet. Both Kennedy and the pope were compelled to make statements denouncing that.

The Constitution guarantees religious freedom and separation of church and state. In a democracy all religious beliefs are considered equal and all government offices are open to people of all religious beliefs. The idea that Christianity should monopolize the presidency is religious extremism that violates the Constitution and democracy. Religious control of government is a concept of Middle Eastern countries that have been forever torn apart by war. It is not the way of peace. Peace comes through understanding of different religious beliefs.

I beg everyone to vote with intelligence and to shun dangerous emotional hysteria.

Rich Lorimer

Streamwood