By Tom Carter Damon Linker, author of The Religious Test: Why We Must Question the Beliefs of Our Leaders , has a thought-provoking column in today’s Washington Post.  As most people know, a religious test for political office is explicitly unconstitutional (Article VI, paragraph 3).  Nevertheless, Linker maintains that all candidates for high political office should take a religious test. He cites John F. Kennedy’s famous Houston speech in 1960 addressing head-on the question of what influence, if any, his Catholic beliefs would have on his performance as president.  He also notes the 2008 “conversation” on religion among Pastor Rick Warren, Barack Obama, and John McCain.  In Kennedy’s case, the speech probably made the difference between winning and losing the election.  In the latter example, it was so watered-down that it did little to expose the depth of belief of either candidate.