Baptist Pastor supports retired neurosurgeon's comment on Muslims

Pastor Robert Jeffress who leads a 11,000 member First Baptist church in Dallas has backed GOP presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson over his recent comment which he suggested that Muslims who want to hold public positions should denounce their faiths.

According to Christian Post, The Baptist pastor stated that christian's need to use a 'religious litmus story' when picking a candidate, as our faith gives us our 'world view'.

"To say that a candidate's faith doesn't make any difference is absolutely ridiculous," Jeffress said.

"We must use the 'religious litmus story' when picking a candidate, our faith gives us our worldview, It's the essence of who we are," the pastor added.

Read: US Presidential Candidate asks Muslims to renounce their faith

Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, has stood by his controversial comments from Sunday, in which some believed he was emphatically stating that a Muslim should never be elected as president.

"We don't put people at the head of our country whose faith might interfere with them carrying out the duties of the Constitution. If you're a Christian and you're running for president and you want to make this country into a theocracy, I'm not going to support you. I'm not going to advocate you being the president," Carson added.

The GOP candidate noted, however, that he would only accept a president with a Muslim background if that person clearly puts the Constitution above their religion.

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Jeffress agreed with that sentiment, adding that any Muslim candidate would have to denounce both 'radical Islam' and the Quran, the Islamic holy book.

"Frankly, any so-called Muslim who renounces the Quran and Muhammed is probably no more a Muslim than a Christian who renounces the Bible and Jesus Christ is a Christian," he added.

Carson's comments have been criticised by some of his GOP presidential rivals, including Senator Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham.

"This shows that Dr. Carson is not ready to be commander-in-chief," Graham said. "Mr. Carson may be a good doctor, but he is not ready to lead a great nation."

Cruz also noted that the U.S. Constitution says there's no religious test for public office.

"You know, the Constitution specifies there shall be no religious test for public office and I am a constitutionalist," Cruz said.