Bernie Sanders grills Trump appointee about his Christian beliefs

Sen. Bernie Sanders drew controversy this week after he questioned President Donald Trump's nominee for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget about his Christian beliefs during his confirmation hearing.

During a Senate Budget Committee nomination hearing on Wednesday, Wheaton alumnus Russell Vought was questioned by Sanders about his blog post, in which the nominee stated that Muslims "stand condemned" for not believing in Jesus Christ.

"In the piece that I referred to that you wrote for the publication called Resurgent. You wrote, 'Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ, His Son, and they stand condemned.' Do you believe that that statement is Islamophobic?" Sanders asked, as reported by The Christian Post.

Vought said that he did not consider the statement bigoted in nature as he was only stating his belief: "the centrality of Jesus Christ for salvation."

"As a Christian, I believe that all individuals are made in the image of God and are worthy of dignity and respect regardless of their religious beliefs," he told the senator.

Sanders, who is a secular Jew, maintained that the statements in Vought's blog were bigoted in nature, and he vowed to vote against the nominee.

The Vermont senator accused Vought of being Islamophobic and described his remarks as "indefensible" and "hateful."

Sanders' line of questioning drew condemnation from some evangelicals, including former Obama Administration official Michael Wear who described the exchange as "pathetic."

Wear contended that Sanders' treatment of Vought was an example of why the Democratic Party deserved to lose in the 2016 elections. He said that he still remembers a time when Democratic leadership spoke out against "using religion as a weapon."

Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, described Sanders' comments as "breathtakingly audacious and shockingly ignorant."

He pointed out that "Christians of every age" have maintained that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation, and stated that it was "inconceivable" that Sanders would cite religious beliefs to disqualify someone from public office in "defiance" of the U.S. Constitution.

Moore further contended that there should be no religious test for individuals who are seeking public office.

A survey conducted by LifeWay Research last year indicated that only half of Americans believe that eternal salvation can be only gained by trusting in Christ alone. A previous study by LifeWay revealed that Protestant pastors (77 percent) more likely than their congregants (48 percent) to oppose the idea that salvation can be gained through other faiths.