by Bruce Eaton

Created on: August 30, 2009

The Great Experiment called the United States represents an enormous challenge and an even greater opportunity to people of faith. We are challenged to co-exist with people of wildly differing views, and still call them countrymen. However, this is balanced by the wonderful opportunity to believe as we see fit, without encroachment by the State.

Are these characteristics of our country at odds with each other? I think not. Religions of all kinds have their tenets and laws that prescribe behavior for the faithful. Man's law neither adds nor subtracts from the heartfelt codes passed down for centuries through the myriad faiths that inhabit this eclectic country. What America does is challenge people of faith to take responsibility for their own beliefs and asks them to have enough confidence in them to live in a landscape that does not require their neighbor to share them.

Voting for a policy that meets the test of America's standards of freedom which is at odds with your own religious standards is both a celebration of what makes America great and a statement of enormous faith. It is a vote that says that if people have the freedom to decide, I can convince them that my faith has the answer. It is a responsible vote, for it requires the faithful to take personal responsibility for the perpetuation of their beliefs and does not abdicate that responsibility to the state.

The state has been prohibited from being a religious advocate and as such should never be used to be the decider of a nation's personal moral direction. As people of faith, pray and vote only for the freedom to make those decisions for yourself. A landscape of freedom will allow the mission field to present itself openly and reveal the work that each religion sees as its own, rather than create a state that is simply the enforcement arm for a given set of beliefs, no matter how heartfelt by the missionaries who pursue their vision of righteousness.

Cal Thomas, the nationally syndicated columnist and TV personality, is a staunch advocate of all things Christian and right wing. He is an unapologetic conservative. His credentials were so unimpeachable that Jerry Falwell appointed him as his communications director for the Moral Majority, the now defunct political action organization promoting conservative Christian doctrine as a legislative agenda. Thomas quit, coming to the realization that the battle had become one for power and influence, not hearts and minds. The business of Jesus had been contorted and compromised in the pursuit of the business of state.

Make no mistake. When your vote is used to mold the conscience of others, you are creating a system that will certainly be turned against you. Your influence will only be maintained as long as your majority lasts, and when the numbers turn against you the precedent will have been set to subjugate you, and you will have set the precedent.

Have the courage to vote for the freedom to maintain your faith while defending that same right for those that find your beliefs perverse. Such a vote will confirm that this is, indeed, the home of the free and the very brave.

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