How important are a politicians religious beliefs to his or her job?

Your religion does not inform your morality or ethics. Those are innate and you either have a sense for them or you don’t. Religion shouldn’t be important at all.

It shouldn’t have any impact on their political decisions, but the fact of the matter is that it does. Therefore, it’s important to me to know what their beliefs are.

Many countries and cultures are founded on spiritual belief, America being an evident testament of this.
I think it serves as inspiration and hope for the populace, but as the creepy cardinal in the back pulls all the strings, I think it’s also extremely dangerous, as history has proven many times.

There’s a reason why church was separated from state, and I believe this to be a very good thing.

I’m a woman.

If it wasn’t separated, I probably wouldn’t even be allowed to use a computer.

I think it is important, but for the wrong reasons. War defines mankind, so if that’s how it’s gonna go, I’d rather my country leader to be logical and efficient, not deluded.

religion in politics is good for familiarity with the people, thing is, I doubt it’s ever really used in any genuinely honest means.

@holden shouldn’t…but are.

we will never have an aetheist president, i bet.

I’m convinced that religion has little to do with someone’s ability to run a country. In fact, I think that religious beliefs are more of a status symbol than anything with many people though they won’t admit it and the actual beliefs themselves play little role in dictating people’s actions. Like @holden said, I believe that morals and ethics are mostly innate or based on societal, rather than religious constraints, and thus religion shouldn’t play a role in political skills.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Good point.

@deni indeed, they are. But I’m more hopeful about that future atheist president.

@holden maybe waaaaaaaaaaaaay future. i can be with you on that one

Very important to me, Keith. I would not vote for an aethiest, for example. I would want to know how they would form their decision making process around their faith. While I believe that they should base their decisions on the constitution and not what their religion tells them to do, I think that having a God-fearing president is important if it’s sincere.

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just because your christian doesn’t mean your less likely to lie look at bush

Bush did seem to claim some divine inspiration for his decisions from time to time. That kind of scared the crap out of me.

@augustlan Yes, I agree. I don’t want ANYONE claiming to be running the country according to what their God told them to do. They should do what they were elected to do and that is protect and defend the constitution and the country from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Religious beliefs, or lack thereof, don’t impact how well a person would run a country.

However, unfortunately they do impact how many votes a person will get. For example, studies have show that only 49% of Americans would vote for an otherwise well qualified atheist for president, and around 10% would not vote for an otherwise well qualified Jewish person.

@randomness ugh…

Religious beliefs should not matter when it comes to politicians, as long as the poltician is not claiming some crazy divine intervention like @augustlan mentioned. I care about their voting record as politicians, that they recognize we are country of many religions, and that they feel strongly about the separation of church and state.

@Baggins why? If a person has integrity, follows the same moral code as a God fearing person, then why does it matter if they believe in God or not?

They shouldn’t have anything to do with the job one way or another.

That said, I don’t blame people for preferring religious candidates over non-religious ones. Religion is evidence (but most assuredly not proof) of a moral framework. Lack of religion is evidence of nothing in particular. I say this as an atheist.

@Factotum Huh? How can you say that as an atheist? I have had tons of Christians on this sight tell me that behavior does not matter as much as the belief in God and Christ. They walk around saying everyone is a sinner, and we make a choice every day to do the right thing. Do you feel like you have to choose every day to do the right thing? I do not mean to say that every Christian is bad or thinks this way, but to say just being religious or from a certain religion is enough to guess what someones moral framework is, I just don’t agree with it. Their behavior is what counts for me.

Certainly behavior is a better indicator of morality than whether one is Christian or not. My point is that there is no moral framework for atheism. Absent any information about a candidate other than religious/non-religious it is reasonable for a person to opt for the possibly faulty known than the completely unknown.

@Factotum I have to think about what you said. The atheists I interact with are some of the most moral people I have met. I guess I just don’t like the assumption that atheists are less moral, and I think that happens a lot among the religious. Maybe I am overgeneralizing.

@Factotum I just reread your last post. I do agree that if all things are equal and one candidate is the same religion as you, then likely you will vote for the person of the same religion. (I use you not meaning you personally). I think that is reasonable.

What might be interesting is for the people who seem to care so much about the religious beliefs of a candidate…I wonder how stressed out they would be if none of the candidates were from their religion? Or, what if all candidates in a particular run were atheists?

That would almost certainly throw them for a loop. I imagine they’d end up voting for the guy who looked least like the Antichrist ;)

A person’s Faith has an impact on their life philosophy, which undoubtedly has an impact on their views regarding the law and politics. Hi Keith

obviouslt none, they have no remorse for the lying cheating and stealing they do on a daily basis, much less the damage to the trust american people once had in them….they want to better the economy they are the ones that need pay cuts