Editor:

In his editorial column of 6/19/17, Rick Jensen projects a smear campaign against Senator Bernie Sanders. It starts with the inflammatory title of “Bernie Sanders, religious bigot?”

Even though it ends with a question mark, the insinuation has reared its ugly head. Mr. Jensen projects that Senator Sanders should be expelled from the Senate for not upholding Article VI of the Constitution as Mr. Jensen interprets it. He accuses Senator Sanders of not supporting the nomination of Richard Vought for White House Office of Management and Budget for the sole reason of Mr. Vought being a Christian.

In fact, Senator Sanders did not support the nomination of Mr. Vought because of Mr. Vought’s hateful Islamophobia based upon Vought’s own beliefs and support of the firing of a Wheaton College professor for stating that Christians and Muslims “worship the same God.” Mr. Jensen follows with a condescending “Sanders continued to listen with his mouth, not his ears,” and that he was “remarkably ignorant” and “went on a red-faced blubber.” He also points out that Senator Sanders endorsed “Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison, whose religion makes some rather harsh claims about nonbelievers,” and goes on to insinuate that clearly Senator Sanders does not like Mr. Vought’s Christianity.

However, the fact is that Senator Sanders did not decline to support Mr. Vought’s nomination because Mr. Vought was a Christian; but rather because of Mr. Vought’s strong condemnation of non-Christians. Also, Keith Ellison, a Muslim, has not made any public condemnations of Christians. In reality, Senator Sanders does not endorse any public comments of hate from anyone, whether they are Christian, Muslim, etc. Also, a telling factor is that one of our Country’s leading Christians, President Carter, supports many of the views of Sanders and, indeed, voted for him.

Our Constitution promotes the separation of Church and State; we are not a theocracy. Our government has people of more than one faith, which is a good thing. The problem arises when someone in office begins to publicly promote their own faith while condemning or speaking hatefully about someone of another faith. This is the stance that Senator Sanders took in not supporting the nomination of Mr. Vought, rather than Mr. Jensen’s insinuations that Sanders is anti-Christian.



Sharon F. Tice

Prescott