We have been through most of the presidential primaries now and have narrowed the field of candidates considerably. But hard choices remain. Are there guidelines for Christian voters?
Because Christianity Today, Inc., is a nonprofit organization, we are prohibited by law from endorsing a political candidate. Thus, we cannot recommend whom you should vote for; however, we can tell you the traits we think make electable candidates. We list them in order of their importance.
The Priority Of Vision
The first question to ask any candidate is “What is your vision for the United States?” When history, time, and chance strip away all the rigmarole of presidential office, the goals a President fought for during his term are left as most important. We must ask this question of candidates repeatedly until we get answers that make sense. In a world where individual vision rarely makes a difference, the presidency of the United States is one place where it still does.
Listen to the current crop of candidates; evaluate their visions for the country. Many seem unable to state one. Aside from hackneyed generalities about wanting a more prosperous and free country, few have taken time to articulate what they would like to see happen in their four (or eight) years in office.
In some cases, the fault lies with trying to please too many special-interest groups. Michael Sandel, writing recently in The New Republic, suggests that “what the Democrats need is not more ideas but a larger idea, a governing vision.”
For their part, Republicans seem to spend more time looking backward, riding on the coattails of past glories; or looking sideways to criticize the weaknesses in other candidates’ programs or performance.
Forward-looking statements about their aspirations for U.S. citizens are harder to come by. That’s too bad. They should be the cornerstone of every campaign, whether Democratic or Republican.
Political Know-How
It would be a frustrating shame to elect a visionary who had no idea about how to get vision-supporting programs enacted. Politics is a skill, a learned craft. Knowing the ins and outs of the political process is a must. Truthfully, the candidate must know more than the ins and outs; he must have experience in navigating the ins and outs. There is no teacher like experience. We do not want to elect a President who learns the job on our time. The office is too important.
What are the skills? They are the know-how to get legislation through Congress; the ability to identify strong people and match them with important jobs; a sense of world history, and the wisdom to read that history with an eye for learning from past mistakes and profiting from successes; the savvy to compromise; the courage to recognize where compromise ends and integrity begins.
Like it or not, in our media age the President has become the country’s therapist. He gets more news time than any other public figure. People listen to what he says. We all find our emotions raised or dashed depending on what kind of spin the President puts on news events, both good and bad. A President who can communicate hope in the midst of tragedy, convey pride despite failures, and clearly articulate a balanced sense of joy in its season is a great asset in a lonely age. Communication skills are a must.
Of course, the President cannot be simply a Doctor Feelgood. He must also be able to call us to account when our communal balloon needs to be pricked. He must be able to convince of the need for countrywide belt-tightening, integrity checks—even repentance, if it comes to that. As a nation, we will always be grateful for Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, in which he called both North and South to account for the Civil War.
Would we be willing to hear any of that kind of talk from the current candidates? Whom are you willing to be led by, for example, even if it would mean taking a dose of strong economic medicine?
Moral Character
The Joe Biden and Gary Hart imbroglios put the character issue front and center in this campaign. Much commentary has been written about the importance or unimportance of moral character. Can a plagiarist be creative enough to be President? Can we trust an adulterer with the national confidence, a man who has found it inconvenient to keep his promises to his wife?
In a way, it has been good to see morality as front-page news. It has helped establish that (1) all are sinners, and if we are looking for a perfect person to be President we are out of luck; and (2) moral character does make a difference. One poll showed that the single most-important personal quality voters are looking for is that the candidate be honest.
Morality makes a difference in another way. The President is the moral model for the nation. Children especially look up to the President as the pinnacle of the American dream. Such adulation has little to do with whether presidential performance has been good or bad. Almost in spite of performance, the President is always in the top five on any “ten most-admired persons” poll. The question we need to ask about a presidential candidate is “Do I want my children to admire the way this person behaves?” They will.
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A Faith Commitment
It is not mandatory that we have an orthodox Christian as President. It would be nice, but it is not a requirement. We first of all want a good leader and politician. An incompetent leader who makes a mistake can lead us into a war that will destroy the world. As Martin Luther put it, “I’d rather be led by a competent Turk than an incompetent Christian.”
Yet our ideal candidate’s faith is not inconsequential. A strong faith tells us two important things:
The candidate knows that human understanding is not the sole measure of the world, that there is a higher power we must come to terms with. This recognition in itself leads to a more realistic, less ego-centered view of how things work. Heaven knows we need less ego in the Oval Office.
The candidate is like us in terms of basic values. Despite the unquestioned secular bias of the mass media, grassroots America is still religious. Ninety-five percent of Americans believe in God, 97 percent say they pray, 70 percent belong to a church. A President who represents those people can do so bestthrough sharing in their basic values and beliefs.
We must fight our way through the tangled thicket of hackneyed phrases and market-oriented political rhetoric. We must strain to hear the positive chords of promising vision. Good characters do not always make good Presidents, but bad ones almost always insure failure in office. We are at a time in history when we cannot afford too many missteps.
By Terry Mick
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