Zealots can be non-religious too

There is much to take issue with in James Haught’s “Our country is ill-served by having zealots in high offices.”

In the limited space allotted in a letter, I’ll leave aside the smeary boilerplate that combines multiple guilt by association with dark hints regarding the “rapture” (gasp) and the shameful fact that some of our high officials attend — hold onto your hats — Bible studies. All of this neatly tied together and subsumed under the hated label of “Fundamentalist.” As a scholar in the field of American religious history, I perceive that Haught’s rant conceals a great irony, which I shal...