Religion in Public Life

While I do not believe that government should in any way sponsor or promote religion, or that government officials should make decisions based solely on religious beliefs, I do believe that it is appropriate for the religious beliefs of elected officials to inform and influence the decisions that they make and shape their ethics and morality. How could it be otherwise? Just as a person's parents influence their character, so does a religion. The challenge for a deeply religious candidate or elected office holder is to translate those positions that for him or her are based on faith into a plan that is based on what is demonstrably best for the people he serves.

During the Republican primaries earlier this year we were treated to several candidates who were very vocal about their religion and how they would use their faith-based beliefs to shape public policy, as if it were self-evident that what they believed was Truth (with a capital "T") and that anyone who disagreed was anti-God and therefore bad for America. The one exception was Mitt Romney. Just as John Kennedy sought as a candidate to defuse suspicion that he would be a stooge of the Pope, Romney has had to deal with worries about the "weirdness" of his Mormonism and that Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints would finally achieve Joseph Smith's dream of political ascendancy. However, in a recent New York Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/us/politics/how-the-mormon-church-shaped-mitt-romney.html?pagewanted=all it was shown how Romney, rather than preaching how he would make certain decision "because the Bible (or the Book of Mormon) says so", has endeavored his whole life to translate his religious convictions into secular policy. In my view, this makes Romney the least scary of the Republican candidates in that he has a sincere and deep faith, but he is not attempting to push that faith on the whole country; but at the same time is not suggesting that his faith isn't influencing him. A good example for religious politicians, although I probably won't be voting for him!