Daytona Community

I have often thought the Constitution of the United States should have a provision that persons wishing to run for political office -- and especially for president of the United States -- be required to take a test like the FCAT. The test would cover the provisions found in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The test would be administered by a group like the League of Women Voters. The results of the test would be given in the usual fashion of A, B, C, D or F. A report on the grades of each candidate would then be given to the The New-Journal for publication -- in advance of any primaries.

If such an election policy were to be followed, John McCain would have had to study for the test many months ago. If he had studied these documents with the open mind of a free-thinker he would have discovered -- contrary to his recent statement -- there is one reference to religion in the Constitution and one in the Bill of Rights. Both references to religion, however -- Article VI of the Constitution and the First Amendment (in the Bill of Rights) -- are in the negative.

These references definitely establish the United States asnotbeing a Christian nation. With all due respect, McCain probably has confused the Constitution and the Bill of Rights with the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration does mention a "creator," but not a "god" of any kind.

A good argument could be made by Muslims that the Declaration could also refer to Allah. For example, after the famous opening of the section that states, "We hold these truths to be self evident . . ." it continues with, "they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights . . ."

The words in question are "their creator." It does not say whose creator. George Bush would like to think it is his "creator," or rather the person he believes to be his creator, i.e., the God of the biblical Old Testament. It could even relate to the creator of the Quran.

And, it should be noted that the founding fathers who wrote the Declaration spelled the word "creator" with a lower case "c." Recent editions of the Declaration mistakenly spell it with an upper case "C."

RUSSELL A. PIZER, Palm Coast