Religion: Personal or Political?

If you are an individual with strong personal religious beliefs it would be very difficult to ask of you to separate yourself from them when deciding on a candidate to vote for. After all, one’s religious beliefs help shape them into who they are and can impact the decisions they make on any average day. Yet, I very much question how valid it is to decide on a vote, whether in regional or national politics, based on the religion of the candidate.

How exactly does the version of God they pray to affect their abilities to govern or lead? I would have to say that whether or not a person attends Synagogue or First Baptist Church does not impede one’s mental abilities nor does it hinder their political decision making. A Muslim is not any more capable than a Christian in politics, nor is a Christian more capable than a Jew, etc. A person’s religious persuasion does not relate to whether or not they are effective at the job they do. I think you only need to look at our current president to clearly see that simply being an Evangelical Christian does not mean that you have the wisdom to effectively lead a country.

What of religion in regards to decision making? Does it have any affect on a candidate then? I believe that if a person believes in a certain set of morals and in one set mode in which the world should operate, as many people of strong religious belief do, that it will affect the decisions that they make each and every day. For an average person this makes little difference or impact on a national or global scale, but for an individual in political office this influence can make a difference on both a small and large scale affecting many. For example, if an individual has very strong Christian beliefs and they are pro-life then it only logically follows that the majority of laws and bills that they support in regards to reproductive health will, more than likely, be from that standpoint and to serve the aims of their personal beliefs.

Should the public be at all concerned with the religion their candidates belong to? I feel that in looking at this topic from whether or not a person can do their job effectively based on their personal spiritual beliefs then I would have to say that making your decision based on that fact is a very shallow and narrow-minded way to decide. Essentially what you are saying is that the individual has no right to be in a place of political power and is not capable of handling such a position because of what they believe – not based on their experience, education or any other concern of relevance, but because of a petty surface issue. Even in regards to the previous paragraph it just simply does not make sense to think that simply because a candidate is Christian that they will then be pro-life (for example) and base your vote on an assumption. What you should do, instead, is to look at the history each candidate has on the individual issues that you hold to be important. What is important to you? Does either candidate hold similar stances on issues such as the economy, abortion or the war as your opinions on those matters?
I think that people should look beyond the broad and general label that a religion gives a person and look at the person themselves. Not everyone who belongs to a particular faith automatically behaves and believes exactly the same as everyone else who follows that religion and it’s foolish to think otherwise. Therefore, it is not safe to assume that you know exactly how a candidate will perform in office based simply on their religion. To me, the religion of a candidate is one of the least important aspects on deciding who gets the vote.

What do you think?