October 31, 2011

Religion at the Ballot Box

Politicians say their religion guides them, so it’s fair to ask: What exactly would a Christian platform look like?

Debaters

·         Michael Novak, theologian

·         Jim Wallis, Sojourners

·         Richard Land, Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission

·         Andrew Kohut, Pew Research Center

·         Richard Cizik, New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good

·         Colleen Carroll Campbell, columnist and author

·         M. A. Muqtedar Khan, University of Delaware

·         Leith Anderson, National Association of Evangelicals

·         Josef Sorett, Columbia University

·         Jean Bethke Elshtain, University of Chicago

·         Adam Brown, Brigham Young University

First, Rule Out Obama

Colleen Carroll Campbell, columnist and author

Colleen Carroll Campbell is a columnist for The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, the author of “The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy” and the host of “Faith & Culture,” a TV and radio show on EWTN.

When choosing a presidential candidate from among the flawed field of 2012 contenders, voters intent on bringing their Christian faith to bear on their ballot-box decisions should remember Lord Palmerston’s observation: in politics, one has no permanent allies, only permanent interests.

Chief among a Christian’s interests must be the defense of innocent human life in its most vulnerable forms. Closely related is respect for religious liberty and those basic institutions – including man-woman marriage – that precede government.

By this measure, a vote for President Obama is a non-starter. Obama has been a firm ally of the abortion-rights lobby, permitted taxpayer funding for research that destroys human embryos, expressed sympathy for efforts to legalize assisted suicide, stopped defending the Defense of Marriage Act and shown surprising disregard for the conscience rights of his religious critics.

As for his Republican challengers, most publicly champion the above principles. So the question becomes: Which candidate is both willing to uphold these principles and capable of defeating the president who is not?

That last criterion would seem to rule out such candidates as Representative Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain, whose political charisma or ideological purity is overshadowed by lack of experience and electability. The most likely nominee remains Gov. Mitt Romney, a candidate with a spotty record but solid policy proposals on these issues who would owe a large debt to pro-life, pro-family Christian voters if elected — a debt they should not let him forget.