Today’s edition of Tell Me More on NPR features a conversation about faith, God, and presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama. Hosted by Lynn Neary, the discussion included Beliefnet’s Dan Gilgoff and yours truly. And it was fascinating. Not so much because of the brilliance of the guests, though we were! (Though we were actually pretty good.), The amazing part was Lynn Neary’s reaction to one of my points.
Responding to her question about something we should have heard at the Saddleback Civil Forum, I mentioned that I would have liked to here both candidates, who have each described themselves as Christians, share with us a biblical passage or teaching of Jesus which they would like to keep in mind each day when they entered the oval office. Our host was stunned. “But”, she almost stammered, “You’re a rabbi”.
So? Because I am a rabbi, I shouldn’t care what Christians believe? Because I am a Jew, I should automatically want less faith in the political mix? It’s a little sad that we have come to that. The truth is that I am not worried about proudly professing Christians in the Oval office. I am concerned about anyone in the Oval Office who allows their faith, whatever it may be (including atheism and agnosticism) to overtake their respect for other faiths and those who practice them.

I would actually welcome the reintegration of religious wisdom into the political conversation. The reason that wisdom is so often banished is because those who are most eager to use it, whether on the right or the left, do so in ways that are always designed to prove that God is on their side and supports their policies. Frankly, that use of religion should disturb us all, even if at any given moment it happens to be breaking our way.
But the real issue is that a national radio host would be shocked by my interest. Even if one is totally hostile to religion, once a candidate for president tells us that he is a Christian, we need to know what he means by that and should encourage him to explain himself. That’s just being an educated voter. But because we too often confuse that which we like to hear with that which we need to hear, we get people who would rather play ostrich, simply ignoring important issues because they may be difficult to work through. If that isn’t a recipe for bad politics, I don’t know what is.