As a non-believer, I have to admit that it’s absolutely hilarious to watch the various candidates for Republican nomination frantically dancing around the comments made by Southern Baptist Convention Leader Dr. Robert Jeffress last week at the so-called Values Voters Summit.
Of course, it was inevitable that Romney’s Mormon faith would become a bone of sectarian contention in this race given that so many of the born-again evangelical teabaggers (or “teavangelicals” as a commenter on the Christian Broadcasting Network has taken to calling them) that make up the Republican base do, in fact, regard it as a “cult” (theologically speaking), if not actually a “false religion”… or, to quote Jeffress, “a heresy from the pit of Hell.”
Somewhat ironically, in order to sidestep the controversy, Republican primary contenders have been forced to publicly downplay the importance of faith – or at least their particular brand of faith – in determining the suitability of a candidate for office, thereby exposing what a ridiculous sham their de facto “religious test” is in the first place.
Red Tory v.3.0.3 
But none of them can pass the purity test. Cain is black; Romney is Mormon who passed Romneycare which is what Obamacare is based on; Bachman was a tax attorney; Perry is soft on illegal immigrants (and a reputed closet case) and Gingrich is on his third wife and a Catholic and none of them understand public policy or the complexities of economics.
If the right wasn’t in ascendancy I’d find the whole thing amusing, but right-wing ideology provides convenient scapegoats, simplistic answers and an emotional certainty that centrism can’t.