Eliza Collins

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Sixty-four Republican lawmakers are asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reassure them that no religious test will be required for people to hold government positions.

The Friday letter to Sessions, obtained by USA TODAY, is in response to a series of questions that Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., asked one of President Trump’s nominees for the Office of Management and Budget earlier this month.

“Questions were asked during a recent Senate Budget Committee hearing about an executive branch nominee’s adherence to the Christian faith, suggesting that such beliefs disqualified the nominee from service,” the lawmakers wrote. They asked Sessions to “make clear” that “no religious test will ever be required to serve in the government of the United States.”

Earlier this month, Russell Vought — Trump's nominee to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget — testified in front of the Senate Budget Committee.

During the hearing, Sanders brought up a a 2016 post Vought wrote for the conservative blog The Resurgent.

“Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ, his Son, and they stand condemned,” Vought wrote in the post.

Sanders read the post out loud and asked whether Vought believed it was Islamophobic. Vought responded: “Absolutely not, senator. I’m a Christian and I believe in a Christian set of principles based on my faith.”

“This nominee is really not someone who is what this country is supposed to be about,” Sanders concluded.

Religious liberty advocates cried foul over Sanders' line of questions. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., accused Sanders of coming “dangerously close to crossing a clear constitutional line.”

Lankford is a former religious youth camp director and serves as co-chairman of the Congressional Prayer Caucus. He wrote the letter with Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., a pastor and co-chairman of the caucus.

Sanders has defended his conversation with Vought. He told CNN that he was “absolutely not” saying someone was Islamophobic because they believe the path to God is through Jesus.

“One of the great parts of our Constitution is to protect freedom of religion. You practice what religion you want. I do. Mr. Vought does. That's what it's about,” Sanders said in a CNN interview in mid-June. “But at a time when we are dealing with Islamophobia in this country … to have a high-ranking member of the United States government essentially say, 'oh, Islam is a second-class religion' … seemed to me unacceptable as a government official.”

In May, Trump signed an executive order aimed at promoting religious liberty. But some activists believed it was largely symbolic and did not go far enough.

Contributing: Nicole Gaudiano

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