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Faith, defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, has three related meanings and two synonyms:

1. allegiance to duty or a person,i.e. loyalty,
2. belief and trust in and loyalty to God, the traditional doctrines of a religion
3. something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially: a system of religious beliefs.

The synonyms for faith are listed as loyalty and belief. Therefore, to my way of thinking, faith is an allegiance to one's beliefs. If a person has belief and trust in a system of religious doctrines, then that faith leads one to loyalty or to be faithful to those beliefs. One's faith is then, the deepest held beliefs of a person, a system of values and world views that one uses to filter and and make judgments on daily issues.

Because one's faith involves loyalty, the words of Shakespeare in Hamlet ring truer than ever, "This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, Thou cans't be false to any man." So the basis for the question is actually, should one be true to oneself and in so doing be true to one's fellow man.

A citizen's vote is an expression of the individual's belief system. If one's vote is free, not coerced or bought, a citizen cannot help but vote according to faith.
I am not an advocate of theocracy but of a representative republic, one where individuals vote freely according to their beliefs to elect representatives that will govern accordingly.

Should one's faith influence a citizen's vote? In a free society, how can it not? Every person has a set of beliefs to which they are loyal, and if honest to that faith, whether an established traditional religion, secular humanism, or atheism, will find that they are true to that faith, even in the ballot box.

Learn more about this author, Jeff Vidrine.
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