An ordained minister running for public office is pursuing a secular purpose. No different than a doctor, of which there are many in the Senate, is running as a doctor.
It depends, I think, on the religion one is ordained in. For example, a Catholic priest running for public office would have taken an absolute vow to be obedient to the Pope, and if the Pope, through the hierarchy of the Church, directed him to vote against a given bill, he would have to do that or defy the oath of ordination.
I don't know what faith Al Sharpton is supposed to have been ordained by -- one can, after all, get ordained in some churches simply by applying for ordination without taking any vow of belief of any kind -- but if Sharpton took ordination in a faith which required him to be absolutely obedient to superiors, wouldn't that be different from a doctor, who had no such obligation? |
