Much of this fixation on audible faith has to do with evangelicals having
been ignored by culture following the embarrassment associated with the
Scopes Trial 82 years ago. Emerging from their political catacombs in the
late 1970s, these Christians basked, if not in new respect, then in the
intoxication that comes with public attention. They were told they were now
players in the kingdom of this world and in presidential politics. Their
leaders were invited into the corridors of political power. They exchanged
real power and its ability to transform lives for temporal power, which
changes little of lasting importance.
While requiring politicians to express belief in Jesus and the Bible, many
evangelical voters ignore Christ's statements about the source of genuine
power. They also conveniently forget what Christ said about how they would
be regarded and treated by a world that had rejected Him (and still does as
the best-selling atheistic works of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins
attest). It was Jesus, in whom Mitt Romney said he believed, who warned, "If
the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first" (John 15:18) and
"If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also" (John 15:20). Those
warnings are not the creed of contemporary evangelicals who think
persecution is a negative newspaper editorial or a disparaging remark by a
skeptic on a cable TV show. Too many contemporary evangelicals want the
blessing without obeying their real commander in chief, who said doing
things His way would bring real persecution.
This election should be more about competence and less about ideology, or
even faith. It shouldn't matter where - or if - a candidate goes to church,
but whether he (or she) can run the country well, according to the
principles in which the voter believes. And, if those principles include a
person of faith, so much the better. God can be the ultimate check and
balance on earthly power.
If a car hits me, I care more about whether the ambulance driver knows the
way to the nearest hospital and the skills of the emergency room doctor than
where they stand with God. That's the attitude we should have toward those
who desire to be president of the United States in a fallen world.