Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell invoked God and God’s will in explaining her political aspirations. Some find her remarks beautiful and others, including the majority of On Faith panelists; find it quite disturbing – some going so far as to suggest that O’Donnell is mentally ill. I find her comments foolishly inconsistent and a little bit beautiful.
The beauty is easy and should be seen by the followers of any tradition which teaches that faith can inspire us to keep going even when doing so makes little rational sense. In fact, comments about the role of faith to keep us moving forward in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds were made by Gandhi and King. Were they mentally ill?
We need to be cautious about confusing agreement with authenticity, especially when it comes to matters of faith. I don’t agree with much of what Cathleen O’Donnell has to say when it comes to politics, but her view of faith as critically important to nurturing people in uphill fights is entirely reasonable and true for many believers.
The problem with O’Donnell’s approach to god is not that she is wrong – neither I nor anyone else, including the candidate herself, can know if her current ascendancy is really the work of God. The problem is that she doesn’t apply here beliefs consistently.

If there is a God, and that God actually manipulates candidacies and elections, then Barack Obama’s presidency is as much a sign of God’s plan as Christine O’Donnell’s primary victory – something I don’t think we are likely to hear about from Ms, O’Donnell.
If everything is the handiwork of an all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-controlling God, then Ms. O’Donnell can’t choose to decide which victories are signs of divine approval and which not. Once she starts choosing, she actually assumes that she, not God, is the all-knowing one.
Her only other alternative would be to invoke an alternative, competing, satanic power which fights with God and, when her political opponents win, actually vanquishes God. That position too will be a little tough to maintain for a true monotheist, as she claims to be.
Maybe God is bringing Christine O’Donnell success, but if so, that same God would be bringing her defeat if she loses. And if success is interpreted as divine approval, I hope Ms. O’Donnell will be ready to re-think her political views if she loses. If she is not willing to do so, then at the very least she should re-think her understanding of God or maybe the whole Christian monotheist thing.