Will the VP debate address faith issues?

The first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump addressed plenty of issues that many Americans view through the lens of faith: economics, war and peace, racism, nuclear weapons, and more.

But neither candidate explicitly or even implicitly grounded their opinions or proposals in religious language or ideas. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

A lot of people are saying the vice presidential debate between Gov. Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Kaine will likelier address issues from a faith perspective. Both men are more comfortable talking about their religiosity than either Clinton or Trump, and both have more self-consciously identified as Christian politicians.

Jonathan Martin’s article in today’s New York Times, which is well written and well reported, is fairly typical of the “faith angle” previews of the Pence-Kaine debate.

The two men who will face off, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia and Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, share a deep religious faith that is central to their politics, but has been obscured by a more profane than holy race on top of the ticket.

While both men are devout, they represent different strands of Christianity in American life, a contrast that is likely to be on display as they discuss their positions on social issues and how religious beliefs would guide their approach to governing.

Though I probably wouldn’t call the article “maddening,” you may want to take a look at this line of critique:

1. Maddening article by @jmartNYT about faith & politics re: VP debate for many reasons. https://t.co/biPk2phime

— Guthrie Graves-Fitz. (@GuthrieGF) October 4, 2016

I take issue with Martin’s (and others’) implication that there is an equivalence between Mr. Trump’s profanity and unholiness at the top of the ticket and Mrs. Clinton’s. The narrative comes across like this: The VP candidates are religious men, talking easily and naturally about faith in ways that their running mates are not. This difference, such as it is, is much more dramatic for Trump/Pence than for Clinton/Kaine.

There is no honest way to suppose that Mrs. Clinton is a secular person who does not think about policy through the lens of faith. She may not be as thoughtful, reflective, or rhetorically elegant as the 42nd and 44th presidents have been on this score. But the distance between Trump and Pence, on the one hand, and Clinton and Kaine on the other, is qualitatively different.

My previous posts on Pence and Kaine:

Are Trump and Pence anti-Catholic?

NYT reports on how and why Mike Pence left the Catholic Church

What kind of Catholic is Tim Kaine?

Do Jesuit schools turn students into atheists?

Catholic bishop slams Tim Kaine for pro-choice views

I’ll be watching the American League wild card game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays tonight. And I am pretty thoroughly convinced that debates do not influence election outcomes. But a lot of people are interested in how the candidates think and talk about religion, so I’ll try to keep both of my readers and all 7 of my friends informed throughout today and tomorrow.