I’m listening to an religious commentator on NPR talking about the anti-Mormon bias that Mitt Romney’s campaign revealed. Now I don’t know if there is much evidence of this supposed ‘bias’ or not but I’m sure that the comparison to antisemitism is unfounded. The Jews (since we don’t really mean Semites) are a cultural and ethnic group as well as a religious one and antisemitism refers to a prejudice against this ethnic/cultural group not hostility to the Jewish religion. There is every difference in the world between questioning someone’s judgement because he believes something stupid and hating them because of their heritage. Mormons (like every religious person) can always choose to believe something more reasonable but you can’t choose to have a different ethnicity.

Of course not all types of undesirable prejudice rest on immutable characteristics. Certainly the unfounded bias and suspicion of catholics at an earlier time in our history is another black mark on our past. However, what made this a harmful prejudice rather than a reasonable disagreement over religious views is the nature of the suspicion that Catholics labored under. It wasn’t merely that people felt catholics believed stupid things or even thought this made their judgement suspect. This might warrant voting against them for president but wouldn’t stop you from being friends with them or accepting them into society. Rather there was a general antipathy toward Catholics that extended to viewing them as inferior people. There is no good reason to believe there is any substantial antipathy for Mormons the way there used to be for Catholics. Even hard core religious right types seems to view Mormons as merely having wacked out religious beliefs but generally being good people.

Still if you think that merely voting against someone on the basis of your religious views is prejudiced and unacceptable then Romney supporters don’t have much ground to stand on. After all Romney has repeatedly made statements about the importance of having someone of faith in the white house. You can’t have it both ways. Either religious views are reflections of the person’s identity and character and thus valid considerations for the voting booth or they aren’t and atheism shouldn’t be seen as a disqualifier for election.

I mean Jesus Christ this is like running on a campaign of ‘kicking out those damn wetbacks’ and then complaining that people didn’t vote for you because you’re black.