The Mormon Mitt Romney will be the GOP candidate to meet Protestant Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election. Period. But amidst this inevitable revelation and his persistently high poll numbers, we still seem to be stuck in a realm of high profile Mormon-bashing and religious poll wars pitting Mormons against a panoply of other “better” Christian-based religions. Sure, Mormonism may very well be a cult founded by some guy in the 19^th century who had a penchant for make-believe storytelling, but continuing to let this factor plague the candidacy of Mitt Romney is simply ridiculous.

Lest we forget that nowhere in the Constitution does it state that the president needs to have an affiliation with a specific religion. Instead, the Constitution allows for freedom of religion and outlines a clear separation between church and state. It is us as Americans who have arbitrarily instituted an unwritten universal doctrine requiring any public office holder to believe in God and have an affiliation with a Christian-based religion. Mormonism is the fourth largest religion in the US with over 5.5 million followers, making it the “best” religion according to many. By his affiliation with Mormonism, Romney is fulfilling these arbitrary requirements set upon him by the American public, so what’s the issue here?

Moreover, there hasn’t been any point throughout the GOP primary where Romney has given the general public a reason to believe his religion would get in the way of policymaking (While it has been argued that Romney shouldn’t be elected because the Mormons stand staunchly against things like gay marriage and abortion rights, remember, the religions of every other GOP candidate touts this same message). Romney himself even summed up his rational, secular version of public office holding very well at the October 18^th CNN GOP debate, “The founders of this country went to great length to make sure and even put in the Constitution, that we would not choose people who represent us in government based on their religion…that there’s a plurality of faiths, where there was tolerance of other faiths. That’s bedrock principle…”

As a further point to outline the absurdity of this Mormon-bashing madness, Americans need to look no further than the US Congress to see that Mormonism holds no imagined “threat” over non-believers. Currently, 15 Mormons hold congressional seats – including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. There is no bill making its way through Congress that will legalize polygamy or enforce Mormonism as a national religion. It’s difficult to articulate a plausible reason why these types of things would occur with a possible Mormon president.

So enough with this Mormon-bashing-my-religion-is-better-than-yours nonsense. With Romney as the sure GOP Presidential candidate it’s now time to move forward and judge him by more relevant and important standards, like his competency and ability to govern.