"Do you believe in God?"

Well, hellooooo, Sen. Kennedy...

On Wednesday, Hampton Dellinger (pictured) was being questioned at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Dellinger is Pres. Biden’s nominee to be assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy.

Before the hearing, Dellinger said he expected to be questioned about his tweets (he’s a fervent progressive). Instead. Sen. John Kennedy, GOP, Louisiana, asked him:

“Do you believe in God?”

The U.S. Constitution forbids anything approaching a religious test for public servants, but someone forgot to tell Kennedy, who was exchanging thoughts with Dellinger about abortion and choice.

Here’s the actual language of the no religious test clause found in Article VI, Clause 3:

“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

Dare I say that such a question is unAmerican on so many levels, and it’s uniquely hypocritical of a Republican to ask it. Let’s take a brief walk back through our recent history:

I believe in God, though I mostly arm-wrestle with Her. Though I started my religious life evangelizing and knocking doors for Jesus, I would no more ask about a person’s faith in private or in public — at a bus stop, the grocery store, or a Senate hearing — than I would sprout wings and fly. What, exactly, is Sen. Kennedy’s damage, do you think?