This is not meant to be political blog, although with the political season heating up, I’m sure there will be some more political posts in the future. But I did want to put my $0.02 in regarding the recent discussions of the faiths of presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney.
The question comes down to this: (1) to what extent should a candidate’s personal beliefs and convictions be considered by voters when they are deciding whom to vote for, and (2) to what extent will that candidate’s personal beliefs and convictions shape how that candidate will govern should they win?
Republicans won control of Congress in the 1994 midterm elections in part as a reaction to Bill Clinton’s liberal policies–policies driven by a liberal ideology–but the “Republican Revolution” backfired two years later when voters chose to overlook “traditional family values” in favor of economic policy when they reelected Clinton to the White House.
I disagree with this approach. I believe that a candidate’s personal beliefs and convictions (not just his religious faith, but also his set of core values) should be considered, especially when voting for a presidential candidate, precisely because I believe that those core set of beliefs directly determine how he will govern. It’s not enough to ask where the candidate stands on the war in Iraq or the subprime mortgage meltdown or illegal immigration. While those are certainly important issues, how the candidate thinks and what he believes will ultimately shape how he deals with those issues: what kind of legislation he will propose, which bills he’ll sign or veto, what kind of Cabinet he’ll put together, which judges and Supreme Court justices he will nominate.
Mitt Romney stated in a speech on December 6th that he wouldn’t let his Mormon faith get in the way of his presidency, saying he would “put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office and the sovereign authority of the law.” He compared the scrutiny of his faith to the scrutiny of John F. Kennedy’s in 1960, obviously sending the message that we should disregard his religious affiliation and only focus on where he stands on the issues.
I can’t do that.
There is a difference between Kennedy and Romney. Kennedy was a Catholic, Romney is a Mormon. That’s a big difference. Mormonism is not Christianity. While Mormons may acknowledge that Jesus is the son of God (a spirit child of God, along with Satan), they don’t believe that Jesus was God or that God is the only god. Mormons believe that God became a god over time and the we, too, can all become a god ourselves and have our own spirit children. They believe that after our death, we will all end up in one of three different kingdoms: the celestial kingdom, the terrestrial kingdom, or the telestial kingdom. (See here and here for a good summary of their beliefs.)
The Mormon faith is in direct conflict with what I believe and what the Bible says about who God is and who Jesus is.
Therefore I cannot, in good conscience, vote for a Mormon for President of the United States, despite where he may stand on the various political and economic issues. Would I vote for him for governor or senator or congressman? I don’t know. Being governor is a lot different than being president, so I honestly don’t know how I would vote in that situation. But in terms of the presidency, I just don’t think I could do it.
So what about Mike Huckabee? Certainly in terms of faith, his Baptist faith is in line with what I believe. Some conservatives have begun to criticize Huckabee for having a less-than-conservative record while governor of Arkansas, chiding him for raising taxes and being too lax on illegal immigration. Of course voters will have to decide how important those issues are to them and how his past governing would reflect his future governing.
But voters will also have to decide whether to vote according to their own set of core beliefs or vote for whom they believe can beat the opposition. I would prefer to vote for a candidate who was more closely aligned with my faith and my convictions, not strictly voting for a candidate because I think he’s “electable,” even if it meant that Hillary Clinton eventually won the election. That’s how important my faith is to me.
So, then, would I vote for a candidate strictly because of his religious affiliation? After all, Bill Clinton is also a Baptist like Mike Huckabee. No, not necessarily. As I said, you have to consider multiple things when considering whom to vote for. So I would say that a person’s faith isn’t necessarily a qualifier but may very well be a disqualifier, as I believe to be the case with Romney.
I know there are a lot of politically conservative Christians that would disagree with me on this point. That’s fine. But I just don’t believe in compromising my faith for the sake of winning an election. I just hope there are others out there who feel the same way.
