Sanders virtue-signals that all Christians are Islamophobic

Anyway, I think what the article notes is largely correct: Sanders is essentially wanting to apply a religious test for office, because he's talking about standard doctrine, not how someone's religious beliefs might impact policy (which is, I think, a fair angle). The Deputy Director of the OMB is unlikely to be using religious beliefs as a basis for performing their duties. That seems far fetched, even by Sanders' standards. He made a colossal ass of himself and this should be pointed out repeatedly, imo.

Of course, I think it's true that Sanders can ask these questions and use the answers as a basis for his vote, but he's a serious dumb fuck if he does that, because he'll be standardizing religious bigotry from Senators, as a basis for confirming or not confirming appointees. Sanders should have way better sense, especial given his background. Because if what he is doing is okay, then there's no reason why other Senators can't ask future appointees of they're Muslim or Jewish, than fashion questions that force such people to indict themselves for seeing their "people" as superior--in one way or another--to other religious peoples. Given the current make-up of Congress, one could allow that if everyone followed Sanders' path, the government will have nothing but Christians in it, into the foreseeable future.

Seriously, what a foolish, foolish display.

He hates puppies, too.

He gives jack-booted thugs a bad name.

It goes farther than that. If Sanders' questions represent a legitimate concern, than anyone who is a practicing Jew can be accused of bias against all other peoples. After all, a core tenet of the Jewish faith is that they are "God's chosen people." If Sanders can ask these questions of a Christian, another Senator could ask the following of a someone who is up for a spot and who happens to be Jewish:

"Do you actually think your people are God's chosen people?"

Granted, Jewish doctrine in this regard no longer sees this as meaning Jews are superior to all others in God's eyes (that's not always been the case), but the doctrine itself is necessarily exclusionary. By Sanders' way of thinking, this would bar all practicing Jews from appointed posts.

I think a similar argument could be made for Muslims.

Maybe only atheists should get these jobs. Or communists...

It's ridiculous, though I think the thread title is a little misleading - Sanders wasn't going exclusively for the Islamophobic angle. He was clearly going for the anti-Semitism angle as well.

"Exclusive salvation" isn't actually universal to all Christian denominations, but most evangelical and fundamentalist denominations do in fact believe that only Christians will go to heaven.

I believe Catholics have some "outs" for non-Catholics, but for the most part, they also believe you're going to hell if you don't follow the Church's teachings - so they include Protestants as well. Of course, a number of Protestant denominations believe Catholics are going to hell.

Mormons, of course, believe only Mormons will get into heaven, and most Christian denominations likewise consider Mormons non-Christian.

So yeah, this is fairly standard theology which Sanders is trying to turn into a wedge. And it's also correct that orthodox Islam says only Muslims will go to heaven, though as with Christianity, there are more liberal branches who've managed to read a general acceptance of "People of the Book" into the Quran. (You're still screwed if you're an atheist or a pagan or a Hindu, though. Unless you're a super-liberal Muslim who basically ignores the Quran, like a lot of super-liberal Christians ignore the Bible except the parts they like.)

Some believers waffle on questions like this entirely by saying "Only God can decide that." Which is certainly true, according to their religion, but their books certainly make some pretty definitive statements about how God is going to decide that.

Anyway, using Sanders' criteria, you'd have to exclude pretty much anyone from a traditional, orthodox religious background from public office, since they all more or less say that non-believers are going to hell. But even they have a fairly solid theological basis for believing that regardless of what you think of the state of someone's soul, you still can and should treat them fairly here on Earth. So the idea that you cannot represent someone if you think they're not going to get into heaven is silly.

I'll note I've had similar arguments with liberals who think any belief that homosexuality is a sin basically makes someone a raving evil homophobe who's unfit for any sort of interaction with gay people in which they have any authority. Never mind that regardless of shifting public attitudes, most mainstream religious denominations - including Islam - still label homosexuality a sin. Even the most progressive Christian denominations still haven't, for the most part, quite gone all the way to "Homosexual relationships and marriage are perfectly legit in the eyes of God." But if you apply this strict principle that anything less than complete acceptance means you're a bigot who can't treat fairly with people, then again, Catholics, Mormons, Muslims, most Protestants (not really sure about Jews) are still homophobes by definition.