What Would A Christian Candidate Look Like?

This year candidates from both parties are talking about the importance of their Christian faith. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee states that “My faith is my life,” while U.S. Senator Barrack Obama has said he would be a president “guided by his Christian faith.” While both men are committed Christians and are comfortable talking about their faith, that faith has led them to very different political positions. The same can be said for any number of other presidential candidates as well. This raises the question of what a Christian candidate would look like and why this would matter.

One approach would be to enter all of the Bible’s commands and the corresponding views of the candidate into a big spreadsheet and try to add up a Christian quotient. However, that can get messy at the micro level. After all, would you really want to define whether a candidate is a Christian based upon how closely he follows 1 Samuel 15:3b? (“Do not spare him, but kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camel and asses.”). As shown by this verse, context does matter.

Instead, it is more useful to look for larger principles from the Christian faith which could be applied to the candidate. In looking for those principles, I think it is important to look for a combination of factors which encompass how the candidate lives his life and how the candidate relates to the world at large. The record of how a candidate has lived his or her life is something tangible which can be measured and weighed. The positions articulated by a candidate may not give an accurate picture of the candidate’s inner beliefs, since people can lie. However, political positions inconsistent with Christian beliefs should be a red flag. Additionally, I think it is important to look for principles which have support in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Christianity builds on the moral tradition established by the Jewish faith. Principles which are present in both traditions are more likely to be of primary importance.

At this point, an important caveat is in order. I have neither the training nor the insight to speak for the Christian faith. I am neither a theologian nor a church leader. As a result, this is my attempt to muddle through but I don’t claim to have all the answers. I would welcome additional or different thoughts from anyone who happens to come across this article.

With that prologue, here are four principles that I think are important:
1. Community;
2. Humility;
3. Compassion; and
4. Morality.

1. Community

Jesus said that where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there also. Matthew 18:20. The Jewish tradition is very much one of community rather than individual faith. It is reasonable to expect that a person who claims to be a Christian would belong to and be active in a church. Within my lifetime, we have had a Republican president who talked a good Christian line but didn’t attend church due to security concerns, as well as a Democratic candidate who stopped attending church because of a dispute over a bike path. On a very simplistic level, this is an opportunity to see whether the actions match the words. However, on a deeper level, the process of interacting with and working together with other Christians is likely to produce a deeper, more leavened faith than would be found in someone whose most profound spiritual experience occurs on the golf course or at Our Lady of the Mattress.

2. Humility

One of the best formulations of the Judeo-Christian heritage is found in Micah 6:8: “And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?” Jesus spoke out many times about religious people who tried to exalt themselves, including his own disciples. See Mark 9:33-35 (disciples arguing about who would be the greatest); Luke 18:9-14 (prayer of the Pharisee and the tax collector). The major stories of the Christian faith, Christmas and Easter, concern God humbling himself to become human and then dying on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. Certainly then, a Christian leader would want to imitate God and dedicate his life to being a humble servant to others and would do so with a full knowledge of his or her sinfulness and frailty. This is not the image of Christian politicians which is portrayed in the secular media. There is an inherent tension between promoting yourself as the best qualified candidate and acting as a humble servant. A candidate who took humility to the extreme would never get on the ballot in the first place. Perhaps the best that we can hope for is a candidate who can laugh at himself and who is not afraid to admit his own failings. More importantly, a candidate with a servant mentality will behave differently and will take different positions than one with a sense of entitlement or spiritual superiority.

3. Compassion

It is easy to know what is most important in Christianity because Jesus said so very directly. When asked what the greatest commandment of all was, he replied: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40. It is difficult to translate love of God into the political realm. However, love of neighbor is much more concrete. A person cannot claim to be a Christian unless he cares deeply about the welfare of his fellow man. As the author of 1 John writes, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him; that he who loves God must love his brother also.” 1 John 4:20-21.

At first blush, the requirement to show compassion may seem problematic for conservatives. Liberals show their compassion through government programs to help the underprivileged. Conservatives frequently oppose these programs on the basis that they are inefficient or promote dependency. However, Christians may disagree on the best method to show compassion so long as they are working toward the same result. One Christian may believe that government programs are the solution, while another believes that incentives to the private sector or public/private partnerships are the way to go. At a minimum, a Christian who aspires to public office should have thought about how to ensure that others are fed, clothed, housed and given access to health care and should have a plan for how to accomplish these goals. If conservatives believe that government is not the best means to the end, they need to be able to articulate an alternative rather than just hoping that things will work out for the best.

4. Morality

Morality is a hard factor to apply. It seems important because the Bible has many moral and ethical commandments. At the same time, the Bible is frequently the story of men who fail to honor those commandments. David violated multiple commandments when he coveted Bathsheeba and caused her husband to be killed in battle; Abraham lied about whether Sarah was his wife; Aaron sacrificed to idols; Moses disobeyed God; Noah got drunk; and Peter denied Jesus. Despite these moral failings, God used all of these men to accomplish His purposes. The Christian tradition relies heavily upon repentance and forgiveness of sins. In the absence of these doctrines, the Christian church would be a very small group.
The moral behavior of a particular candidate may or may not be a good indicator of whether they are a good Christian or a good candidate. For example, we know that Sen . Barrack Obama used illegal drugs in his youth. Of course, we know this because he disclosed it in his autobiography and expressed regret. If anything, this episode shows the moral values of honesty and repentance. On the other hand, a Christian who violates his marriage vows or cheats in business transactions without demonstrating remorse or changing his ways might not be someone who should be entrusted with high office.

Does Any of This Matter?

Now for the really big questions: Why do we care whether a candidate who claims to be Christian acts like one? Do Christians have an obligation to support their “team” when it comes to politics? Should religion even matter in a country which is constitutionally prohibited from establishing a national church?

The answer is both yes and no. A secularist who is honest, competent and moral would be preferable to an inept or insincere Christian. Governing requires ability as well as ideals, so that a candidate’s belief system should not overcome his or her lack of ability. Additionally, the moral principles found in Christianity are found to greater or lesser extents in other religions and in the secular world as well, so that Christianity does not have a monopoly on morality.

Here’s why it does matter. The Christian faith is not just a matter of a person’s private religious opinions. Rather, it is the basis for a comprehensive way of seeing the world, a philosophy of how we relate to ultimate reality. Knowing how a candidate’s view of the world compares to the voter’s is important information. If a candidate’s core beliefs and values are inconsistent with yours, this should give you pause. Additionally, when a candidate claims to be Christian, he or she is agreeing to be held accountable to those beliefs. Inconsistency and weakness are part of the human condition, so that it is not realistic to expect anyone to be a perfect Christian (any more I could claim to act consistently with my beliefs all or even most of the time). However, at some point, if the actions do not match the words, it is a clear sign that either the candidate will say anything to get elected or that their thinking is so muddy that they don’t really know what they believe. Either way it is a cause for concern.

Thus, I think that whether a candidate speaks and acts like a Christian is relevant in three regards:

1. If a person claims to be a Christian but does not act like a Christian, that candidate should be rejected as a sham and a fraud.
2. If a person takes positions or acts in a manner which is inconsistent with fundamental Christian beliefs, that candidate should be rejected as well.
3. If a person claims to be a Christian and acts like a Christian and has shown ability, that person should be preferred to someone who takes positions contrary to or acts inconsistently with Christian beliefs or who lacks ability.

To put it another way, a false claim of Christianity should be an automatic disqualifier, while a true claim of Christianity should be one factor to be considered among others. The difficulty with the criteria that I have outlined in this essay is that they are much better at eliminating candidates than selecting them. No candidate is likely to perfectly demonstrate Christian values, even one who is a former minister. As a result, Christians, like other voters, are left to choose from shades of gray and hope that it works out for the country. However, they should never stop asking questions about how their faith relates to life.