The right questions

It's not bigotry for voters to take Mitt Romney's Mormonism into account | Joel Belz

I'm a wee bit surprised at the number of trusted evangelical leaders who have jumped in so early to endorse former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for president. But I am stunned at how many of them also go on to claim that anyone who opposes Romney because he is a Mormon is guilty of bigotry.

Nobody should feel guilty about raising such questions. And a few distinctions are important.

"The Constitution," one long-time friend keeps reminding me, "says 'no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.'" He is right, of course—and I am thankful for that provision. But when the Constitution says that neither the nation nor a particular state can lawfully impose such a test, it in no sense suggests an individual voter cannot—with total legitimacy—impose the same test.