Religion and the election

Charles Haynes brings up an oft-asked question in today's Conversations section: Does religion matter when we choose a president?

Haynes is a first amendment scholar, who I have talked to before, so I don't doubt his legal opinion. Basically he said it shouldn't matter, but he glossed over what I see as the deeper question people are really asking. It doesn't matter as much what religion they profess, but how do they practice it. Do they really believe and follow all that their faith proclaims?

The faith itself can tell you a lot. For instance, I tend to lean toward being socially conservative and economically liberal. I believe we rise and fall together as a society, so we should be helping each other out and raising up those on the bottom. Much of that is informed by my Catholic faith. Similarly, I would expect a Baptist, whose theology is more focused on individual responsibility and salvation to be socially and economically conservative and to lean a little more on the pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality while still being compassionate.

So how well you believe that faith tells me a lot more about your future decisions than if you just check a box marked Episcopalian or Jewish. Rudy Giuliani and John Kerry claim to be Catholics, but their beliefs and actions demonstrate that they reject much of what the church teaches. That raises even more alarming questions in my mind. Similarly, I don't agree theologically with Mormonism, but if Mitt Romney is a faithful Mormon, then I feel I can trust where he's coming from.

What do you think? Should religion matter in the presidential election and how do you evaluate it?

A shift for values voters?

I have a feeling this news from the Romney campaign is going to make the faith questions in this year's election even more interesting...

What do you think? Have you even thought about religion/faith/values as you ponder your choices in Saturday's primary?

Obama, Huckabee and Evangelicals, oh my!

If the faith and politics stew was simmering before, it has come to a full boil with Mike Huckabee's triumph in the Iowa caucuses last night.

Evangelical Christmas apparently made up 60 percent of Republican caucus goers, and nearly 80 percent of Huckabee's supporters. It makes sense - he's a former Baptist minister.

On the other side, Obama is a Christian with a more liberal theology. Faith came up some, but seemed to play no real role in his victory in Iowa.

So what do you see for the future? In 2004, pundits (particularly those in the Northeast major media markets) were blown away by the "values voters." Will faith continue to play a large role in the mind of voters? Or are we in the media making more out of this than is really there?

North Louisiana resident to lead Southern Baptists

For the first time in a while, the President of the Louisiana Baptist Convention hails from North Louisiana.

The Rev. Mike Holloway, pastor of Cook Baptist Church in Ruston, was elected yesterday to lead the state's Southern Baptists. He was nominated by the Rev. Randy Harper of Bellaire Baptist in Bossier City. Holloway's opponent was our own the Rev. Chuck Pourciau of Broadmoor Baptist.

The Baptist Message, the convention's newspaper, conducted a pretty good pre-election interview with Holloway, asking about his theology and goals for the conference. He also addressed the issues of declining numbers of baptisms in the convention.