I will never forget the answer that George W. Bush gave in an early presidential\u00a0primary season debate \u2013 December 13, 1999<\/a> \u2013 when he was asked, \u2018who is your favorite political\u00a0philosopher\u2019.<\/p>\n He looked into the camera and with a child-like demeanor, he said, \u201cJesus Christ, because\u00a0he changed my life.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I didn\u2019t know whether to laugh or cry at his answer.<\/p>\n Bush\u2019s answer opens up the discussion of how religion and American politics are\u00a0intertwined. As much as the government wants to separate church and state, American politics\u00a0shows how differing political opinions influence religious decisions and differing religious\u00a0confessions influence (or are used to validate) political values.<\/p>\n I am Canadian and I grew up in Canada. Most of the people who run for Prime Minister\u00a0are Protestant or Roman Catholic. Many of them are religious and attend Sunday worship\u00a0service. However, religion and politics do not mix up in Canada, where much political thought is\u00a0influenced by its being an officially bilingual country.\u00a0If a Prime Minister candidate talked about God on the campaign trail, Canadians will\u00a0believe the candidate is strange or has become a little crazy. If a candidate ever did that, the\u00a0candidate will certainly lose their opportunity at becoming the Prime Minister.<\/p>\n It is the opposite in American politics. The presidential candidates believe they have\u00a0to often talk about God, refer to God, and how their God is viewed by their faith, and therefore\u00a0in their politics. As the recent Vice Presidential debate between Joseph Biden and Paul Ryan\u00a0demonstrated, this means they must even speak to the issue if their point is that their religion has\u00a0no influence on their politics. Both Vice President Biden and Mr. Ryan are Catholic, and the two\u00a0have very different views on the influence of faith and politics.<\/p>\n However, 2012\u2019s election campaign has seen relatively little \u201cGod-Talk\u201d. It is usually\u00a0the conservative right who like to push the God-talk upon the candidates. They like to use \u201cGod-talk\u201d to illustrate which candidate is \u201cmore\u201d Christian than the other. Christianity or \u201cGod-talk\u201d\u00a0within the campaign trail has been frequently used by the parties to sway voters and to convince\u00a0that one candidate is the better Christian than the other. Or even to paint the false picture that the\u00a0other candidate isn\u2019t even Christian at all. Much religious talk and some phony issues revolve\u00a0around the character of the candidates. The ink and sound waves spilled over President Obama\u2019s\u00a0birthplace and Mr. Romney\u2019s tax returns are less about substance than they are about whether or\u00a0not the candidate is lying.<\/p>\n Mitt Romney has been shy to talk about God, but once in a while he goes off script and\u00a0brings God back into the conversation.<\/p>\n He said<\/a>, \u201cI will not take God out of my heart, I will not\u00a0take God out of the public square, and I will not take it out of the platform of my party.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This\u00a0is in reaction to the Democratic Party that had to argue to get God back into its platform at the\u00a0convention.<\/p>\n However, Mr. Romney is still avoiding discussions of his own faith conviction and what\u00a0it means to believe in God. Since Romney is a Mormon, a minority religion, possibly not even\u00a0truly Christian, and he is having such a difficult time with that issue, the conservative right\u00a0commentators are shying away from religion, God-talk and Christianity.<\/p>\n The presidential candidate who can sincerely and genuinely talk about God will win the\u00a0voters, because regardless of their faith, an honest stance in the faith demonstrates a positive\u00a0character. This worked well with Jimmy Carter. However, to use God and to use God\u2019s name to\u00a0sway voters to either candidate is simply manipulation. It puts voters off, because it is no longer\u00a0a matter of personal conviction, it becomes a matter of \u201cyou must do what I believe.\u201d This is\u00a0poison, especially in social issues such as feminist matters and the environment.<\/p>\n Furthermore,\u00a0having faith is does not merely mean \u2018talking about God\u2019 but is about \u2018living out the gospel and\u00a0showing God within our lives\u2019. If a candidate cannot live out the faith, but just \u2018talk about God\u2019\u00a0it means nothing. \u201cFaith without deeds is dead\u201d (James 2:26). Living out the gospel means\u00a0obeying God\u2019s commandment to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. This includes\u00a0taking care of the poor, the elderly, the widow, the distraught and the down-trodden. When a\u00a0candidate merely \u201ctalks\u201d about their faith without wanting to live out the gospel, it makes us\u00a0wonder which God they believe in. We all know that actions speak louder than words.<\/p>\n As we reflect upon this election and who to vote for, we should remember that using the\u00a0name of God to manipulate an election is general \u2018politics\u2019 and \u201ccharacter building\u201d. It does not\u00a0reliably reveal anything about the candidate\u2019s beliefs or faith in God. This does remind us of a\u00a0commandment, \u201cDo not use the name of God in vain\u2019 (Exodus 20:7). It comes down to \u201cwhen\u00a0you do it to the least of these, you have done it to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Rev. Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim<\/a>\u00a0received her M.Div. from\u00a0Knox College<\/a>\u00a0and her Ph.D. from the\u00a0University of Toronto<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0is an Associate Professor of Doctrinal Theology and the Director of the Master of Arts in Theological Studies program at\u00a0Moravian Theological Seminary<\/a>.\u00a0She is the author of two books,\u00a0The Grace of Sophia: A Korean North American Women\u2019s Christology<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Holy Spirit, Chi, and the Other: A Model of Global and Intercultural Pneumatology<\/a><\/em>. Grace was recently ordained as a Teaching Elder in the\u00a0Presbyterian Church (USA)<\/a>\u00a0and also blogs for\u00a099 Brattle<\/a>\u00a0and at\u00a0gracejisunkim.<\/a><\/p>\n
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