The Christian Complex

Nice article from George Will.
The Christian Complex by George Will:
The state of America's political discourse is such that the president has felt it necessary to declare that unbelievers can be good Americans. In last week's prime-time news conference, he said: "If you choose not to worship, you're equally as patriotic as somebody who does worship."

So Mark Twain, Oliver Wendell Holmes and a long, luminous list of other skeptics can be spared the posthumous ignominy of being stricken from the rolls of exemplary Americans. And almost 30 million living Americans welcomed that presidential benediction.
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Religion is today banished from the public square? John Kennedy finished his first report to the nation on the Soviet missiles in Cuba with these words: 'Thank you and good night.' It would be a rash president who today did not conclude a major address by saying, as President Ronald Reagan began the custom of doing, something very like 'God bless America.'

Unbelievers should not cavil about this acknowledgment of majority sensibilities. But Republicans should not seem to require, de facto, what the Constitution forbids, de jure: 'No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust.'