Every American has the right to hold elective office regardless of religion, Lieberman said. Lieberman: Embrace Romney's faith

Sen. Joe Lieberman has a stern warning: Leave Mitt Romney’s religion out of this.

“I have been watching the recent controversy over Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith through two prisms,” the Connecticut senator said in an op-ed penned in The Washington Post. “One is the vision of the appropriate relationship between government and religion, as set out by America’s founders; the other is my own experience in 2000 as the first Jewish-American to be nominated for national office.”


“The United States of America was and is a faith-based initiative,” he said.

Lieberman, who ran for vice president on the ticket with Al Gore in 2000 and made a bid to win the Democratic nomination for the White House in 2004, said the United States is founded on the “the right of every American to hold elective office, regardless of religion,” and that every American has the right to worship as they choose.

The senator also recalled how in 2000, when Gore chose him to be his running mate and he became the first Jewish-American to be nominated for national office, “I personally experienced the American people’s generosity of spirit, fairness and acceptance of religious diversity.”

The outpouring of support that Lieberman said he received more than a decade ago was a reflection of “how Americans embrace the faith that we share, even though we may be of different religions.”

Romney’s faith became a front-and-center issue in the 2012 GOP race recently when a Texas pastor called Mormonism a “cult” at the Values Voter Summit in Washington.

Suggesting that Romney “may well be the Republican nominee,” Lieberman noted in the Post that the country’s promise of religious freedom will continue to be tested as the presidential race progresses.

“And once again, a barrier may be broken,” he warned.

The senator expressed his hope that no voter will base their votes on Romney’s Mormon faith and the fact that it seems “different.”

“Romney must be judged on his personal qualities, experience and ideas for America’s future,” he said. “That truly is the American way.”