Jon Stewart Slams Critics of Mitt Romney's Mormon Faith: 'You Can't Cherry Pick the Worst Aspects of a Religion

Jon Stewart is known for tackling some of the day's toughest, most controversial issues from a comedic -- and leftist -- perspective. On Wednesday evening, he delved into Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Mormonism, taking aim at some of the individuals who have attempted to make it an issue during the electoral season. While he went after critics of the faith, he also threw in a few digs at the GOP frontrunner.

"There's nothing frightening about [Romney] being a Mormon to me," Stewart said. "Apparently some in the Republican Party's evangelical base think otherwise."

Stewart played a number of clips from the past six months from people like Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, the Rev. Franklin Graham and Pastor Robert Jeffrees. In each instance, these religious figures indicated that the candidate is not a Christian in the traditional sense. Then, the comedian characterized Jeffrees' most recent endorsement of Romney as an example of: "I hate Barack Obama more than I love Jesus."

Then, as the segment forged on, Stewart delved into some of the media attacks on Romney's faith from MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell and Martin Bashir. Additionally, he took aim at Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer who recently said that Romney's polygamous roots may be problematic for the candidate (yet he failed to mention Obama's same family history).

Mediaite has more:

Jon Stewart addressed Mitt Romney‘s Mormonism on Wednesday, and those who seem to view him as not being part of Christianity. Going through various remarks and concerns, Stewart ridiculed the whole debate, ultimately quipping that Romney’s inevitably discriminatory potential policies having nothing to do with his faith. [...]

“You can’t cherry pick the worst aspects of a religion and hold a person responsible for it,” Stewart said. “It’s not like Mitt Romney will pursue policies that are unfair to black people because he’s a Mormon. He’ll do that because he’s a Republican.”

Watch the Stewart segment, below:

(H/T: Mediaite)