Should Christians Worry About a Candidate’s Religious Preference?

2012 is due to witness a shift in America, one way or another. Either the incumbent, self-proclaimed secularist President, Barak Obama, will regain the White House and we will witness the collective groan of the Evangelical community as it mourns its opportunity for change, or Mitt Romney, the devout Mormon, will gain the White House to the mixed reaction of the Evangelical right. I’ve been asked the question recently if, as an Evangelical Christian and a pastor to boot, if I was concerned that Mitt Romney is a devout Mormon. The truth is, I’m not concerned. I’m more concerned with a man who claims to be a Christian and all but denies Christ publicly so that he can further a purely secularist, anti-Christian agenda. While I do believe a person’s religious beliefs will impact his world-view and influence his decision-making to some degree, I believe there are political safeguards already in place, not to mention some general biblical principles that should calm Christian fears about a candidate’s religious beliefs.

Political Safeguards

The First Amendment, which is part of the Bill of Rights, states that, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” This clause means that the Federal Government cannot establish a national religion, nor can it prefer one religion over another. This would prohibit any elected official from giving preferential treatment to his or her preferred religion or putting in placed laws which favored one religion over any other religion. I hasten to remind Christians that we have legislative and judicial branches of our government that are overwhelmingly not Mormon and would hold any such President in check should he desire to violate the cornerstone of American liberty. This does not prohibit the President from exercising his personal religious freedoms as he believes. Limiting any American in that way further violates the First Amendment’s free exercise clause. Thus, all candidates, and every President, are free to practice their chosen religion at their discretion, but are not free to proffer bills or sign into law any statute that would prefer their religion over any other, let alone establish a national religious preference.

Article VI of the Constitution of the United States reads,

“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

This means that no governmental official in our country is required to neither practice any religion nor hold one religion over any other in order to hold office. This does not prescribe a purely secular government, but neither does it require any religious affection on the part of our elected officials.

I believe these two political safeguards, already built into the governmental landscape of our foundational national document, should ease the minds of Christians with respect to the religious positions of governmental candidates.

Biblical Principles

When it comes to secular governments, Christians would do well to remember that we are merely passersby and travelers through this world (1 Peter 1:1) whose citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). While we’re here, we have the responsibility to maintain a right relationship with our secular governmental authorities through prayer and submission (1 Timothy 2:1-4). Romans 13:1-7 is the most explicit biblical statement of the relationship between government and the Christian community. It states,

 “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.”

From this passage, the Christian is reminded of his responsibility to submit to governmental authorities because of their Divine authorization. It also reminds the Christian of the purpose of human governmental authorities – to honor good conduct and punish evil. It is not the job of human governmental authorities to promote or preserve Christianity per se. I would remind those who disagree with me that Paul wrote Romans 13 while Roman Emperor Nero reigned, and Nero was no friend to Christianity to be sure! The law which ought to govern the governors is the moral law of God which is universally known to all mankind. However, because of the pervasiveness of sin and depravity, human governments, and their governors, will not always establish laws which honor that which God would call good (but that is a discussion for another post).

Therefore, it is a misstep on the part of Christians to presume that our elected officials must be Christian or Christian sympathizers. Human governments, whether conservative or liberal, are secular in nature, while the Church is spiritual. We cannot impose upon our government an inordinate spiritual responsibility nor should we worry when one of its officials is not thoroughly Christian.

Concluding Thoughts

Though I believe the political safeguards and biblical principles discussed above should alleviate Christians’ religious fears related to their governmental officials’ religious affections, as I said above, I do believe a man’s religious positions do affect his decision-making – at least they should if consistently and faithfully held. Therefore, it is in the interest of Christians to be aware of every candidate’s religious tendencies to the extent they inform his worldview. That said, it is in the best interest of Christians to be aware of the political positions of their candidates and officials. When a candidate’s positions do not align with the clear teaching of Scripture or a consistent application of biblical principle, then the Christian should question whether his vote should be cast for that person. Should the Bible speak to an issue, then its authority should reign supreme for the Christian. In such instances, Christians should side with the candidate, elected official, and political party that supports the biblical position most closely. Apart from that, the believer should allow a biblically informed conscience to guide him in political matters.