by Diane O'Leary

Created on: August 21, 2008

When the Founding Fathers came together to design a government, they drew a distinction between public religion and private religion. Their personal belief status, drawn from their Deism, used the words "Creator" and "Nature's God," and this is America's public religion, that whatever our faith, we believe in God, whatever form God may take in our personal lives. Jon Meacham, in his book "American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation" states "Faith and freedom are inextricably linked: IT is not for priests or pastors or presidents or kings to compel belief, for to do so trespasses on each individual's God-given liberty of mind and heart. If the Lord himself chose not to force obedience from those he created, then who are men to try?" (5).

And thus lies the problem. We have seen what happens when faith drives politics, as the Christian Right with all of their money donated from congregations and men of influence have done since the inception of the Bush presidency. The Christian Right's influence has created an atmosphere of intolerance towards secular society (i.e. the rest of us) all of these years, and where has this contention gotten them? According to the book "UnChristian" written by Christian Right researchers and pastors for their own flocks, conservative Christianity has shot itself in the foot as most people that were polled over the ten years the book was written thought of Christians as arrogant, self serving, authoritarian, dictatorial and pushy (among other uncomplimentary thoughts). When ONE particular faith is voted in (as in the case with Christian conservative support of George W. Bush), it creates a threat to the religious freedom of the rest of the country, intolerance towards those who are Muslim, Wiccan, Buddhist, or any other faith that is not derived from Christianity. Does this mean religion should never be a factor in voting? Of course not.

Of course we should keep our personal beliefs in mind when selecting a candidate. The difficulty lies when churches tell their congregations which way to vote. The difficulty lies when evangelists very publicly appear with the President, making the President look as if he is endorsing that faith and ONLY that faith. The difficulty comes when voters are ONLY looking at a presidential candidate's faith when considering him/her for President. During an interview by the Institute of Global Engagement,with Brent Nelson, Professor and Chair of Political Science at Fuhrman University,

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