People are still talking about Mitt Romney and his "religion speech".  Some people have had some crazy reactions, while others have made much more strong arguments against his speech.  For me, the fact that he brought up religion at all didn't defuse the idea... it brought it up.  Before he gave that speech, I didn't think much about his religion.  Now, he's said things like "Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone."  Several months ago he said "We need to have a person of faith lead the country."  So contrary to the idea that he was making a case that someone's religion shouldn't be held against him... he was simply saying that his religion shouldn't be held against him.  But you have to have some kind of religion to hold office.  In other words, atheists need not apply.  But he's not alone in that view.

There are a lot of people who are throwing around accusations of anti-Mormon bigotry, as well as charges of discrimination (including an accusation of such against me).  And to be fair, some people are very bigoted against Mormons.  I don't have anything against Mormons personally.  Your religion is yours alone.  But as I've said before, when your religion drives you to make policies that government shouldn't be talking about in the first place, then I have issues.  But the reality is, when it comes to who we vote for, it's pretty stupid to talk about discrimination and bigotry... especially when it comes to religious views.  For instance, would you vote for an atheist?  Would you vote for a Muslim?  If not... why not?  And if you wouldn't vote for an atheist because you think godlessness is wrong, then why can't someone else choose to not vote for a Mormon because they don't like the precepts of that religion?

While we may not have an official religious test in law, the reality is that each voter has their own personal religious test that you can't control, which is probably the way it should be.  But don't even get me started on Mike Huckabee.