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Absolutely! I believe religion should play an important role in choosing Presidential candidates. It is quite possible that religion is completely downplayed in the choosing of a Presidential candidate. The nation would be in danger of sacrificing its ethos with catastrophic consequences in the long run. A nation that promotes freedoms needs to ensure that the chief executive is a person of integrity, transparency and upright.

Integrity should be understood to mean a known quantity, not an x variable that will change under circumstances; a person who has a clear and stated position on issues that are important for the well being of the nation. People may not agree with everything he/she says. Transparency is in the context of accountability; someone who can be shown his wrongs. An upright person is one who simply is trying to live a moral life based on the faith of the majority. A saint for a President? Yes, if the majority who vote value peace! A saint is an ordinary person who strives to live a life of integrity and transparency and is upright.

This is not to say religion and politics must be one and the same. It would be impracticable and ill advised to try to erase the lines between religion and politics. The main reason, I would argue, being that in a pluralistic society, people subscribe to different sets of belief and worship differently and it is okay. Trying to erase that difference would be like trying to force all people to choose the same thing. It would be ungodly; He made us in His image and gave us the freewill. People may be influenced at individual level to make choices about how or whom they will worship. This too should be okay.

Religion consists of sets of beliefs, on which value systems are founded; in turn, they give life to traditions and cultures. Traditions and cultures manifest in rituals and routines, chanting, closing of eyes while praying, bowing down, etc. Although it would be hard to assign a linear relationship between beliefs, value systems, traditions and culture, it is probably true that some values espoused by one culture could be incompatible with those of another. Hypothetically, this raises the possibility that by subscribing to a particular religion (its traditions, culture and rituals), we inadvertently set ourselves against another.

Politics is about government, and management of national assets and resources. In the global context, politics is a tool by which a few can speak for the majority on a wide array of important issues that affect our common welfare, and the environment in view of the generations to come.

People in politics come from our homes where religion is practiced. We choose them. We vote them into office. We choose those who articulate value systems we agree with. ... the majority, make the choice.

In a pluralistic society every religion counts, the majority who cast their vote will determine the next President. Religion will play an important role.

Learn more about this author, MacDonald Chaava.
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