RESPECTING RELIGION...

Speech at Mayor Healy's Latino/Clergy Leadership Meeting at Hard Grove Café - Delivered on March 26 by Rev. Mario González 

The Constitution of the United States - Article VI, Section 3.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

"AMERICA is an experiment in democracy. For hundreds of years now, people from all over the world have migrated to this country with an ideal about what had come to be known as the American dream.

It was a dream that led us to believe that the whole could be greater than the sum of its parts; that we could find greater strength, by virtue of our diversity. That people possessing different philosophical paradigms could somehow set aside their differences for the common good.

For hundreds of years we have been relatively successful at finding common ground and moving forward because, notwithstanding our differences, we learned to engage each other with due deference, with civility, and with respect.

This forward momentum, and our democratic experiment itself, is now challenged by a contrary ideal. Many now embrace a visceral political philosophy that values the use of ad hominem political strategies – strategies founded on appealing to people's base fears, emotions and prejudices rather than their intellect or reason.

The Bill of Rights places a constraint upon government's involvement in religion in the very first Amendment to the Constitution for a reason - because our founding founders valued the concept of religious liberty as a whole, and respect for the individual's right to practice their religion unencumbered and without having to worry about bearing the stigma of governmental intervention or criticism in particular,

The Fulop campaign now appears to believe that when it comes to conducting a campaign, "all bets are off," as regarding our First Amendment. That they, through a sitting Assemblyman, can explicitly criticize and exploit a candidate's alleged personal religious beliefs for their own political gain; that they can criticize the deeply held beliefs a large number of our constituents, particularly seniors among us with conservative views, with critical immunity. They have made a mistake.

We take this opportunity to thank the mayor for his stand on the First Amendment and the right of all people to worship according to their conscience, and the separation of a person's religion or creed from political discourse. He is to be applauded for taking the high road in this campaign and standing for ALL THE PEOPLE OF JERSEY CITY.

We are here joined together across denominational lines to tell Steve Fulop and his campaign that when it comes to religion, we demand respect across the board. This isn't just about Christians. We speak for all conservative religious groups in saying that this behavior will not be tolerated within political campaigns in our great city. A candidate's religious beliefs, whatever they are, must be respected."