Politics and Faith

Recently the NY Times' Bill Keller wrote an article

"Asking Candidates Tougher Questions About Faith"

Having read the article and his blog with the questions I find nothing objectionable about the questions nor the concept of asking candidates how 

their faith would effect their actions as a president. I do feel bad that Mr. Keller has lost his faith.

I too am concerned about some of the views of the candidates in question. 

Looking at Presidents up to the present I really don't know that their faith has impacted their presidential actions all that much, with the possible exception of Jimmy Carter. Some would say that's a good thing because of separation of Church and State. Now I'm a Catholic sister so that's where I'm coming from but if your religious faith does not effect how you live every day. If it does not affect how you see the world and the choices you make then you're just playing games. 

I listen to some of the current crop of candidates and they pray, invoke God and talk about their faith but they seem to be cafeteria Christians and Mormons. Picking what they like and leaving out what is politically risky.

Through the years Christian presidents and other politicians have been able to ignore lots of the more inconvenient demands of Christianity. I think particularly of the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5 or Luke 6: 20 - 26 "Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours". Check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9TBRPDcMOk

Or how about this quote from Leviticus 19: 34?
"You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt.^y I, the LORD, am your God."

The 10 Commandments are pretty clear and we all struggle with them but with politicians it appears that number 8 is often ignored,

"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Exodus 20:16

Just wondering are all the commandments suspended when you're running for office? Is it okay to let PACs make up stuff about your opponents that aren't true?
During the last campaign I recall John McCain softly correcting a women who

repeated one of the many slurs about Barack Obama. I thought wow! Integrity! 

I know all of us are hypocrites to some degree. I too have a plank in my eye when it comes to certain demands, but the point is you keep trying to grow and change and be more aware. So I'm praying for all our candidates that they may live up to the demands of both their faith and our constitution.

It would help if they read their books of faith, Bible or Book of Mormon and the Constitution thoroughly and don't skip the hard parts.