The Constitution provides that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." But, as Gary Scott Smith of Grove City College writes in his new book, Religion in the Oval Office, "Throughout American history many citizens have viewed strong faith as an asset, if not a requirement, for politicians, especially presidents."
The biography of faith, such as it is, of the Republican presidential candidate who has led the polls for six months starts with First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens. That is the church Donald Trump's parents attended and in which he was baptized. Trump, who is 69 and a self-described Presbyterian, characterizes Presbyterianism as "down the middle of the road," even though there are several Presbyterian denominations, with theologies that critically differ, and the Jamaica church is a member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), for decades one of the most liberal ecclesiastical bodies in the country.
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