Faith Matters In Politics

Well the country, no make that the media, is getting its shorts in a knot again because one of the candidates running for President is a Mormon. Even though I was a little boy when John Kennedy was President I still remember the consternation over the fact that he

was Catholic. "Will the Pope be running the country?" was a question posed in the 60's. I'd like to say we have come a long way since then but we haven't.

One night on Fox News the question was asked specifically referring to the Mit Romney. "Should a person's faith matter if they are running for president?" The Fox News panel thought it should not. I disagree strongly.

What a future President believes is absolutely significant for we, the electorate, look to that person to make assessments, evaluations and decisions on our behalf.

Faith, real faith, a faith that means something, is the deepest part of what and who a person is. Real faith shapes a person's convictions and real faith informs every area of consideration such that assessments, evaluations and decisions emanate from one's belief system. You better believe a person's faith is important to their candidacy.

Part of our problem in understanding that, is that we have a cultural aberration which insists that faith is a private matter. In other words, what one believes can be important to them but God forbid that, that person should impose his beliefs on anyone else.

But that is absolutely ludicrous because every decision a person makes emanates forth from what they believe. That doesn't mean that what the person believes is necessarily religious, but what a person believes and what the person does are inseparable.

The other factor that makes it difficult for us to understand this is that we have seen so much hypocrisy from political leaders who pretended to have faith. Ted Kennedy--supposedly a Catholic--for example has been a champion of so many principles that are antithetical to his church that his faith is a joke. But that doesn't mean that every person's faith is irrelevant to their choices.

And so it does the citizenry good to be informed of what exactly a person believes and if their faith is real, it can be a great guide to knowing whether you want to vote for them or not.