Thomas Jefferson said that a person’s religion should be between them and their God. I think that most atheists would say that that is how they would like relgion’s role in this country to be. But unfortunately, we live in a world where your religion matters. Maybe not to me, but to many, it does. You cannot be elected president of this country if you are an atheist. I say this with 100 percent certainty. More than likely, the next president of this nation will have their faith and religious background scrutinized more than their actual qualifications to hold the job. I ask: should a candidate’s religion be fair play in a presidential campaign?

My answer to that is not as simple as I thought it would be. In a perfect world, my answer is no. If your religion is kept to yourself, it means it would not affect the way you do your job as president. But in today’s world, refusing to answer the question can, by itself, eliminate you from consideration for the presidency.

In an ideal situation, a person running for president should not have to share their personal thoughts and beliefs if they have no intention of using those beliefs to make decisions. In the instance that a candidate plans on using his or her faith as a cornerstone of their administration, it should be examined.

In today’s political world, there is just too much campaigning involved for the question to not come up. And if it comes up, you have to answer it. To not answer a question about your religious beliefs leaves you open to others filling in the blanks for you.

Like it or not, the religious community yields a large amount of power in the electoral process. In order to get the votes from the republican base, you need to make them believe that you are a religious, moral person. To get the democratic votes, you need to be not so religious that you appear to be part of the religious right. But at the same time, you need to be religious enough as to not become the enemy of the right. It’s nearly impossible for a candidate to cater to only one party and have any success nowadays. So in order to be a legitimate candidate for president, you have to show your religious credentials to get to the next stage. This is why no atheist will be president any time soon. But of the candidates out there, how deeply should there religion be examined?

I only want to know if a potential president (or Congressman, Governor, etc.) plans to act religiously. If a person holding public office can keep their religion and faith confined to their personal life and church, then I don’t really care what faith they lean towards. But if a president plans on saying that God told him to attack a country, or that abstinence only should be the law of the land, I take issue. Mind you, I’m relatively supportive of President Bush, especially for an atheist. While he may say that God told him to attack the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, they were both in my opinion, more than justified without God’s commands.

There are some people that are religious in tradition only. There are Jews who don’t believe all that an orthodox Jew does, but still go to Temple and follow the Jewish diet, but only to keep with their families traditions. There are a lot of Mormons that consider themselves Mormon, but don’t practice. The same goes for Muslims and Christians. I consider most of these people harmless in the political world. Spineless, but harmless.

The people that actually believe in creation, Mormons that practice, Scientologists…these are people that I don’t want in office. If you belong to a religion that is based in complete nonsense, I don’t think you are qualified to lead this nation. In these cases, religion should be examined. If you actually believe the Earth is 6000 years old, and the Grand Canyon was carved from one single giant flood, you are not qualified to be president and I need to know ahead of time. There are different levels of religious belief, and I think sometimes it is important to determine just what level a candidate is at.

My top priority is that I don’t want someone else’s religious beliefs to affect my life in any way. Ever. Under any circumstances. But I am completely behind the notion that if you are not hurting me or anyone else, do as you please. A President of the United States is completely capable of serving four or eight years without using their religion as a deciding factor.

While I’m more supportive than most people like me in regards to President Bush, I am against many of his decisions that were based on his faith. I think funding for embryonic stem-cell research should be decided by the qualified people for that issue. Scientists. The logic behind the embryonic stem-cell research decision was flat out wrong. The decision to veto a bill that would have allowed frozen embryos created for fertility purposes to be donated for research, rather than be destroyed, was a misguided decision. The bill was about embroyos that would otherwise be destroyed. If the veto were going to save the embroyos that get destroyed, I’d at least partially understand, but it doesn’t; it just doesn’t allow them to go to research. Said President Bush:

“This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others. It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect. So I vetoed it.”

But if a president is going to use their religion in a way that affects my life, I take issue with it. What affects my life are rejection of proper sexual education, prefering that creation be taught alongside evolution in schools, and restricting the efforts of scientists to find cures for diseases I may someday get.

Whether I like it or not, the religious beliefs of the people around me affect me. I would love to someday see an election where the religion of the candidates is not an issue, because it has no effect on the way they do their job. In an ideal world, we could have a Catholic president, and not find out until he left office because they didn’t let it get in the way of the job. But we are a long way from that day, so in the meantime, I think examining the religious beliefs of a candidate are important. Not so much to know what denomination they fall into, but at what level. I want to know if a candidate is a creationist, because I may need to make plans to find a new home in New Zealand.

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