Recently Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney took the stage to discuss "Faith in America."

It was a risky move for him, unfortunately precipitated by the ironclad grip that the conservative evangelical right wing has on the Republican Party. The fallout from the speech and the heightened attention to Gov. Romney's Mormon faith has begun. I was shocked and deeply saddened to listen to the anti-Mormon tirade that spewed forth from political pundit Lawrence O'Donnell on a recent episode of "The McLaughlin Group." The panel was discussing Gov. Romney's "Faith in America" speech and the ongoing controversy surrounding his Mormon faith. O'Donnell accused the Mormon faith of being "racist" and "ridiculous" and said the faith is "based on the work of a lying, fraudulent, criminal named Joseph Smith." I was gravely disappointed by this episode and the constant attention to faith and religion in the presidential race.

An individual's faith (or lack thereof) is a personal affair, not a public issue open to debate in a political campaign. When faith is made a public issue it becomes open to the very public debate (and prejudice) that we saw on "The McLaughlin Group" and that we see in the Republican presidential primary. Making faith a public political issue pits different faith groups against each other and drags belief into the oftentimes dirty and low arena of politics. It potentially demeans and degrades religious belief and subjects it to majoritarian rule. Making faith a public and political issue de facto creates religious tests. This was exactly what the Founding Fathers attempted to avoid in outlawing explicit religious tests and seeking to maintain a wall of separation between public affairs and religious institutions. It is as much for the protection of religion as it is for the protection of the people and government. In politics, there are winners and losers. In faith, there should be no winners or losers.

In America, we need religious pluralism and a separation of church and state and religion and politics. The troubles that Gov. Romney now faces based on his religious beliefs stem from the fact that Republican primary voters (mostly evangelicals) demand that Republican presidential candidates publicly and loudly confess their religious beliefs so that those beliefs can be measured against the approved brand of Christian doctrine. A candidate's failure to wear his religious beliefs on his sleeve risks political isolation and rejection. Unfortunately, the Republican "big tent" has become a revival tent. Gov. Romney decided to play this game by making his "Faith in America" speech. By doing so, he has handed the evangelical extremists and his fellow presidential candidates a can of worms and a can opener. Gov. Romney can hardly make faith and religion a public issue and then play the victim and refuse to answer the questions in the very public debate that he started. If Gov. Romney is rejected by Republican primary voters because of his Mormon faith, then religious pluralism will be truly and openly dead in the Republican Party.