quote:
Originally posted by coldfuse:
Are there any personal details or transgressions which are perfectly understandable elsewhere that might exclude a candidate from consideration in the USA?
Don't know: which personal details or transgressions exclude a candidate from consideration in the USA?
In Britain, we have no objection to people who are devoutly religious but they'd be ill-advised to volunteer that fact to the national selection panel (potential candidates apply to go on a candidates' list) or to the constituency selection committee (that committee selects their candidate from those on the list who apply for the seat).That's not because of the religion but because they'd wonder about anyone who thought such a political irrelevance important enough to mention.
Party committees are barred, by their own rules, from asking a potential candidate's sexual orientation or religion nor are they allowed to ask whether the person is for or against abortion or for or against the death penalty [because these are matters of personal conscience, not politics.When those questions have arisen in bills before Parliament the MPs have not been subject to their party's whip (instruction), the MPs debating and voting 'according to conscience'. The last is also irrelevant now because Britain is bound by European treaty not to have the death penalty]
We do have atheists, gays and lesbians in Parliament.A political journalist, discussing religion, did say that two of the present cabinet are declared atheists and others may well be atheist.I'm pretty sure that at least one of the cabinet is gay (but I can't remember which: it
doesn't matter 
).At least one is Catholic, something that only became public knowledge because of a potential conflict of interest in her department when government policy could have been thought at odds with what she, the cabinet minister in charge of the department, had as the teachings of her Church.
