Less than two months after Ben Carson drew ire for claiming a Muslim should not be made president, fellow Republican candidate Ted Cruz said over the weekend an atheist would similarly be “unfit” to sit in the White House. Speaking at the National Religious Liberties Conference in Iowa, the Texas senator was asked if candidates should view Jesus Christ as "the king of the President of the United States" to whom the White House should submit.
A Christian theocracy, in short...
After entering the stage, Cruz responded: "Any president who doesn't begin every day on his knees isn't fit to be commander-in-chief of this country."
Unfortunately for the 44-year-old, the constitution, which he purports to hold dear, states there should be no religious test for public office. Cruz stop short of explicitly stating atheists should be barred, but the sentiments are clear -- a tacit endorsement of discrimination against anyone non-Christian.
Similar to Carson's line, Cruz's statement should play well with Republican voters. But it’s not just America’s religious conservatives that view atheists with suspicion. A 2015 Gallup poll found that only 58 percent of Americans would vote for an non-believer running for president.