Ted Cruz Explains Which Religions Are OK for American Presidents

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

From Ted Cruz, explaining his own personal religious test for political candidates:

Any president who doesn’t begin every day on his knees isn’t fit to be commander in chief of this nation.

Atheists are taking offense at this, but as I understand it, Jews don’t kneel when they pray. So….I guess Cruz doesn’t think Jews are fit to be president either.

That’s ridiculous, of course. Cruz was just using a metaphor for praying, so Jews are OK as long as they pray every day. It’s only nonbelievers who are unfit for public office.

And that’s no metaphor at all. So here’s my question: the press threw a fit when Ben Carson suggested that Muslims weren’t fit to be president. Will they throw a similar fit now that Cruz has suggested atheists are unfit to be president? This is, of course, a rhetorical question, so there’s no need to answer. I think we all know this will be treated as a meaningless pander because, you know, atheists. Who cares about them?

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate