The Religious Test: Why We Must Question the Beliefs of Our Leaders
Linker is concerned our liberal democracy—defined as one that emphasizes individual freedom, limits the power of the state, and the like—is threatened by traditionalist believers and radical atheists. They are unfit for public life or office because of the illiberal demands their ideologies place upon them. Saints, for example, cannot be statesmen, as their first loyalty is to their god, not the Constitution or the liberal institutions that serve democracy. Believing there is a right way to behave in the political arena, Linker articulates six political commandments, including placing no authority above the Constitution. Yet political views informed by religious beliefs or atheistic sensibilities were not something the framers of the Constitution saw fit to enjoin. By excluding those with whom he disagrees from political life in order to safeguard liberal democracy, Linker’s six-point test ironically becomes not only unconstitutional but also as illiberal as the ideologies he decries. Nevertheless, this is a thought-provoking book about the tension between politics and religion in the public square. --Christopher McConnell