Does a US President have to be a Christian?

The profession of Christian Faith is important to Americans for some reason.
Also having a spouse is very important for some reason.
Neither is a US constitutional requirement but it would be difficult to win the office without both of these boxes checked.

 

Depends on the country and also the time...
But in general it is much lesser given as in the USA that religion plays any matter ... means to tell "I am Christian" is not as such necessary not to loose votes as in the US.

 

Good post!
You are right ... in reality everyone who wants to become US President must be Christian or at minimum play a Christian, otherwise the person can forget to become ever US President.
And this is the big contradiction in the USA between reality and written words in constitution

 

Good post ... and do you also know why this is the case that Christian Faith is at least so important?

I can tell you ... When constitution was written about this, what was there the situation?
The (former British) colonies were full of people of various Christian, mainly Protestant denominations, who were therefore somewhere in Europe and somehow persecuted in their countries of origin and then emigrated to the new world to get freedom without persecution.
Who in Britain did not belong to the Anglican Church with the King / Queen as head of the church, had a big problem such as the Puritans or even Catholics, of course. In France, the Catholic faith was the state religion and the Protestants there were more than just persecuted. In Germany it was a bit more complicated, because after the end of the 30 Years War the area of Germany on the map was a patchwork of countless principalities and kingdoms. Every prince / king etc. determined the state religion, i.e. Catholic or Lutheran Protestant ... and woe to you if you didn't belong to this religion, then you often had to emigrate to the neighboring principality. Other minorities, such as the Armish in southern Germany and Switzerland, were not welcomed by anyone, as if they emigrated to the new world ...

Anyway ... With such an immigrant background and reasons, religious freedom was of fundamental importance to the founding fathers in the USA ... but at that time it actually only referred to the countless Christian denominations. Any Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists or whatever else were (nearly) not there at the time ... therefore not the topic at all and thus the founding fathers did not think about it either.
But times change, as is well known, but the wording of the constitution, of course, and rightly not because of that ... but the basic Christian attitude, at least in the back of the mind, just as little because Christians are of course the vast majority in the USA, at least on paper.

 

If one drives by churches on Sunday mornings in the US, one can see how empty the parking lots are. If the lots are full, it’s likely to be a Mormon meetinghouse.
But even they are losing membership and are counting on a more worldwide proselytizing.
Still I don’t see a day when a Mormon can become president of the US.

 

I don't think so, but he should be married.
A bachelor has no chance to be elected as president.

 

I have a rather wild idea for you Sir...... do you remember the episode of the Beverly Hillbillies where Jethro Bodine played by Max Baer got the idea to become a movie producer? "Jethro Bodine movie producer at your service!"

I am rather worried that if the economic aspect of this COVID 19 pandemic is handled with something near incompetence.... that the USA and world economy could plunge into another 1929. One of the possible ways around this is ART in some form.........

I even like the idea of deliberately planning an artistic boom in real estate prices.... .in rural America....!?

The White Horse President prophecy and saving the USA constitution and dollar.

... but in order to accomplish this I think that the stage needs to be set up where Latter day Saints, (or at least an influential segment of Mormons) ... get much closer to at least some Pentecostals who would take this prediction by Pastor David Wilkerson quite seriously:

The Worgl Austria Great Depression Experiment and a real estate boom in rural America?

In 2020 and 2021 and on and on and on... Mr. Mitt Romney and artistic 2012 - 2020 First Lady Mrs. Ann Romney could draw closer to the followers of Pastor David Wilkerson and....... if they had been able to do so back in 2011 and 2012.... they might have gotten so many more votes that even the George Soros voting machines might not have stopped them!

Theoretically..... this idea could be turned into a film project that gets off the ground even where you live Mandelus? I write and write and write and write and the ideas are all for free...... (or for a dollar or a shekel or a Euro just to make it legal)!

 

I heard many years ago that Latter day Saints play a crucial role in Los Vegas. Mormons are one of the only groups of Americans honest enough to be trusted with counting such vast amounts of cash so........ Latter day Saints have risen to a high level of prominence in Sin City.

Vegas would be one of the places where an alternative currency unit like Ithaca Hours or Calgary Dollars could be turned into more and more and more USA dollars if..... some sort of way to bet on the following concept could be figured out?

My guess would be that raising funds for the LDS Relief Society... would be one possible way to get this started???

If Mr. Mitt Romney had put this idea into some form during his campaign... .I think that he could have won the 2012 election!?


https://www.latimes.com/opinion/sto...mney-white-horse-prophecy-mormon-joseph-smith


Opinion: Will Mitt Romney fulfill a Mormon ‘prophecy’ and save the Constitution?


Romney did have some support among Evangelical Christians at that time.

 

The Mormons are an exceptionally good social service organization.
But they are quite ruthless to their members who dare to question anything orthodox about the church especially the line of prophets and their capricious revelations.
They are to me a multinational corporation.
Still I wish that Romney had won.

 

In Germany it is no different ... if you drive past a church on Sunday there is nothing going on. Most of them are only in church at Christmas ...
A little more than half ... about 52% ... of the population in Germany are Christians (Catholics and Protestants). Then there are 38% citizens without religious affiliation, around 4% are Muslims (most of them are Sunites) and the rest is then distributed with zero point percentages across a wide variety of religions and denominations... for example are 0.40% Jewish.

 

Religion is a unifying force that likely prevented a Muslim takeover of Europe. (Charles the Hammer) but I was trained to be empirical so I can’t accept it even though I try sometimes.

 

I could be wrong.... but I have been thinking that the gifted Pastor David Wilkerson may have nearly completely misunderstood what he was shown about the future in the unusual vision or dream that he was given back in 1973........

One part of his vision or dream was a massive worldwide church..... that he perceived as persecuting his people... .Pentecostals. I am thinking that if Latter day Saints could get together with several influential near death experiencers..... that the time of persecution that Pastor David Wilkerson was warned about.... could perhaps be done ARTISTICALLY.... rather than literally?!?!

Mormons are all set up to link to every major religion on earth.... through their teaching on Multiple Mortal Probabions.... and a particular near death experiencer that I would suggest that they begin discussions with... would be Mr. Christian Andreason.......

 

Viewing religion as something of an IQ test.... .(or Spirituality / Wisdom Quotient Test)...... created by an infinitely ancient Intelligence who found out how to lower and lower and lower and lower the energy that this Creator is composed of........ may assist both you to understand the ultimate purpose of religion and.......as well as assist a possible future LDS President to appeal to a wider segment of the population of the USA?!

https://www.near-death.com/experiences/exceptional/mellen-thomas-benedict.html#a09

 

I’m most drawn to Buddhism but I view it as a philosophy and a lifestyle rather than a faith.

 

Nearly thirty years ago I was talking on the phone to a buddy and I remember terming myself a "Christian Buddhist' because I did not know what else to call a Christian who was wide open to the idea of reincarnation in at least some form!



Why reincarnation was edited out of Christianity?

 

Well ... at the time of Charlemagne or Charles the Hammer how you call him, the Islamic expansion was still in full swing and they had just overrun and conquered almost all of Spain and Portugal ... and were advancing towards the Frankish Empire (i.e. today's France). It was not only about 1,200 years ago, but also a total different situation when Charlemagne won the important battle then.

Anyway ... Many forget that parts of Europe have been and are Islamic since exactly this time and until today, especially in the Balkans, e.g. Albania and Kosovo. In Istanbul alone, which is in the European part of Turkey, there are around 16 million Muslims, more Muslims than in the USA.
If you look at the proportion of the population of Muslims in Western European countries, then the average is between 2 and 6% depending on the country (in Germany and the Netherlands around 5% depending on the source). In the Eastern European countries, the share is largely in the zero point percentage range ... and that's why I can only smile really hard when there is talk of an Islamic invasion to stir up hatred against this religion.

 

Charlemagne and Charles the hammer (Charles Martel) were two entirely different people

And yes Muslims whose Koran is quite specific about the absolute non separation of mosque and state (as nothing should be separate from Islam because it is a sin) are well founded in their belief that democracy is blasphemy if they are observant Muslims.

This should be concerning especially in Europe as it is here.

 

But doesn't "Christian" religion still have affect on elections?
Why else would tRump gas protestors just to get his photo taken holding up a Bible??

 

What happens if a President becomes his own unique religion of which HE is the chosen one...how does the constitution address that?

 

People in the US vote their emotions which are fluid. Bush, Obama, Trump are prime examples of this. If you don’t claim to be Christian you don’t win. Doesn’t matter if you ever go to church. Perception is reality in the US voters’ minds.

 

It does not. As long as they are 35 or older and born in the US they can be elected and serve.

 

Oops ... translation error. You are right, Charlemagne was Charles the Great

Right, secularism does not exist in Islam ... except for Turkey before a certain Erdogan came there to power.
I could dig deep into the history now to explain the many reasons for this, but let's leave that.
The more important point is that most Muslims in Europe are like most Christians in terms of empty parking spaces in front of churches on Sundays, etc.

 

@Mandelus
Well I mostly agree but I think Muslims are more observant than Christians excluding Mormons.

 

If you yourself could change the wording....what would you say to make it more applicable regarding religion?