A supporter going on a rampage, looking for Republicans to kill, was not the only setback to Senator Bernie Sanders in recent days. His campaign for presidency last year held out the prospects of a reinvention of the Democratic Party as he mobilised a large section of society to question the prevailing corporate-driven economic model of America. Last week, he may have found that goal more elusive.

Empathy for people in material distress has been the cornerstone of Mr. Sanders’s politics, but his foray into some otherworldly questions during a confirmation hearing in the Senate drew him a lot of flak. Mr. Sanders wanted to pin down Russell Vought, Donald Trump’s nominee to be Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, on a question of his faith. “Do you think that people who are not Christians are condemned,” the Senator demanded. Mr. Vought avoided a direct reply, resulting in a prolonged exchange between the two. “I believe that all individuals are made in the image of god and are worthy of dignity and respect regardless of their religious beliefs,” Mr. Vought said. He did not forget to add his belief in “the centrality of Jesus Christ in salvation”. Mr. Sanders declared that he found the nominee unsuitable for the job and voted against him.

The question that followed is whether Mr. Sanders applied a “religious test” while assessing the nominee’s eligibility, which is unconstitutional in America. Mr. Vought has written in an article that those who do not believe in Jesus Christ are condemned. That view is protected under religious freedom, but is that view discriminatory to people of other religious faiths and hence their religious freedom? The answer may not be easy, but the discussion has easily created more bad blood in an already volatile political environment.

Fundamental liberty

“Religious freedom is such a fundamental liberty that the framers of our Constitution enshrined it in the First Amendment. That’s why it’s so disturbing that Trump continues to pack his administration with appointees like Russell Vought, whose views threaten that very freedom,” Manar Waheed, legislative and advocacy counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.

“...no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States,” says Article 4 of the U.S. Constitution, which only applied to federal government initially. In 1961, the Supreme Court said the First Amendment — that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” — covered all religious freedoms and barred all discrimination.

Religiosity is on the decline in the U.S. but a majority are believers. Only one-third of Democrats go to church service, but 70% of the country is still Christian.

Eighty-five per cent of Catholics and 88% of Evangelical Protestants believe in heaven. Moreover, a significant stream of progressive politics, including the civil rights movement, has been inspired by faith. Many evangelical groups came out against Mr. Trump’s travel ban that targeted Muslims, and some of them argued that the move was against the teachings of the Bible. All these factors led to a wide belief that Mr. Sanders went over the top on the issue.

In another setback for Mr. Sanders this week, the candidate he and Senator Elizabeth Warren supported for Democratic nomination for the race for the Virginia government, Tom Perriello, lost to the establishment candidate supported by Hillary Clinton. The shooting of Steve Scalise, a Republican lawmaker, by a supporter of his perhaps came at a bad time for Mr. Sanders.

Varghese K. George writes for The Hindu and is based in Washington.