Despite the fact that this election cycle features two historic presidential candidates, there is still something utterly familiar about it. All the remaining viable candidates are Christians, and none of them have been asked to define their religious beliefs in further detail.
In an election where McCain, Obama and Clinton are claiming they have the judgment to lead the country forward, why have their religious beliefs become off-limits on the campaign trail? Don’t our religious beliefs, or lack thereof, give information about our judgment, how we view the world and how we might respond to various situations? To put it as Hillary Clinton would, “It’s 3 a.m., and your children are safe and asleep. A phone rings in the White House. Wouldn’t you like to know whether the person answering the phone believes the second coming will be in their lifetime or not?”
My suspicion (and, of course, it is nothing more than just that) is that none of the candidates are religious zealots. I’d be very surprised to find out that Obama actually believes in the story of Genesis, or that McCain believes Jesus actually walked on water and turned water into wine. Christians are not a monolithic group and in my experience with more educated Christians, I’ve noticed that many believe in God, believe in Jesus, but don’t really take the Bible literally. But with the state of current public discourse, we’ll never know just how literally Obama, McCain and Clinton take the Bible. We are left to make guesses about the role of faith in their lives based on stump speeches contrived to make them look religious and faithful, without actually spelling out specific beliefs.
Thus, Americans who do take the Bible literally, who are religious zealots, never see their beliefs put up to scrutiny or see influential figures distance themselves from those beliefs. Because mainstream politicians never have to clarify their viewpoints, zealots can claim the mainstream’s viewpoints as their own, or, at the very least, view their own beliefs as a logical extension of the mainstream. And thus, science has been constantly under attack from the religious community in recent years (see the opposition of stem cell research and attempts to discredit evolution).
It’s about time presidential candidates who love to wear their faith on their sleeves are asked tough questions about what exactly they believe. Religion is not an intrinsic value like race or gender that should not come into consideration in election; it’s a philosophical worldview. What could be more important in determining who would make a better president than understanding how they view the world?
Rather than asking Obama if his pastor loved America as much as he does, we should ask Obama if he believed in the Bible as much as his pastor does. Rather than having countless debates with meaningless soundbites, personal attacks, “gotcha moments” and personal attacks, we should have debates about the merits of candidates’ faith and the role of religion in society.
This failure to challenge candidates on their religious beliefs allows charlatans to dupe the American people. As many as one in ten Americans don’t believe in God, yet most national politicians claim to be religious. Something is amiss.
When Stephen Colbert asked Congressman Lynn Westmoreland, whose only sponsored bill in Congress aimed to display the Ten Commandments in public courthouses, to name the Ten Commandments, he couldn’t get through four of them. I suspect Westmoreland is not the only one. How can we expect candidates who lie about their beliefs to be honest in office?
Sadly, Christianity is put on a pedestal. When a Mormon, such as Mitt Romney, runs for office, he is scrutinized for his religion. When a Muslim, such as Keith Ellison, is elected to Congress, he is asked on CNN Headline News to “prove [he is not] working with the enemies.” When an evangelical Christian, such as Mike Huckabee, runs, he is asked to define his faith. But when someone like Obama, who loves to speak in vague and general overtones about the role of faith in his own life runs, it is suddenly hush-hush. And that’s a shame.
Tim Hiller is a senior microbiology major. He can be reached at thriller@umd.edu .
