Does religion matter to you...
 

...in selecting a candidate?

Because I'm an absentee voter, I've been getting a lot of flyers in the mail for the primaries that are coming up at the end of August. (I'm non-partisan, so I only get to vote for judge, tax collector, county commissioner, and supervisor of elections). Each and every candidate had to mention the fact that he was a member of a certain church (the lone Jewish candidate made a vague reference to being active in "religious groups"). Of course, there were no Catholics--just Baptists and Methodists.

In local election such as these, do any of you actually care what religion your tax collector is? Superintendent of a public school district? I can understand listing community involvement and how familiar you are with your constituency.

Re: Does religion matter to you...
 

There are certain religions that I look down upon because of doctrinal issues. My views are more based on their religion as a whole than their dogma. I don't think it would enter into a decision on a politician. I guess a Jehovah's Witness could be a hell of a candidate. If he or she were, I'd vote for 'em.

For me it doesn't really matter.

If I thought that there religion was likely to make them really socially conservative it would matter to me. Especially in a judge.

For judges: For district judges and lower judges like that: No.

For Supreme Court: yes.

I can't stand judges that wear their religion on their sleave and interpret law through the Bible.

Unless i agree with them ;)

:D

There's always that.

Re: Re: Does religion matter to you...
 

Since Jehovah's Witnesses don't vote (to my knowledge), I think I'd be tempted to vote for one, too! ;)


I vote on the issues. I'm in a state where Independents are fairly disenfranchised for the primary, so while I'm registered in a party, it's because that party tends to support candidates who share my opinion of the issues more so than the others.

I think the "voting straight party" option should be done away with altogether! Even if I were to vote straight party, I'd select each person, rather than the "all of the above" option.

Personally, when political candidates/politicians mention religion, it bothers me. Even if it's as something as "innocent" as mentioning God -- I don't think it's relevant to anything political, and it makes me feel that the politician doesn't take into account that not all citizens share his/her religious beliefs.

Re: Does religion matter to you...
 

Why did you write "of course there were no Catholics?" Are there Catholics in your community? Do they not run for office? I'm not trying to start anything. I am just really confused.

And to answer your question: no. I vote for candidates who will best represent me regardless of religion. :)

Atheist, Buddhist, whatever...I judge by their personal principles. I'm quite turned off by any candidate that wears their religion on their sleeve. Most truly spiritual/religious people aren't so vociferous about their beliefs. I've found that the more insincere ones tend to talk the most.

I would never ever vote for or against a candidate simply because of his/her religion.

Re: Re: Does religion matter to you...
 

I vote out of Florida--the part of Florida that's considered the South, where the three big religions are "Baptist, Methodist, and football." :) We only have one Catholic church and one synagogue, and about 25 Baptist churches, and about 30 Methodist ones. So, when I say, "of course there were no Catholics," it is a reflection of the community and the fact that two denominations pretty much run the show.

You know I feel the same way. In fact, I was pretty much turned off by all the candidates (except one, because he did amazing work in setting up an advocacy center for abused children) because I thought they were all good old boy rednecks. Most went to my HS--great! You're 60 and you've never been outside the county! You represent my interests! :rolleyes:

Religion makes no difference to me.

Re: Re: Re: Does religion matter to you...
 

Oh I see. My cousin lives in Texas where Irish Catholics are few and far between and football is a religion also. She really missed New York.

I wouldn't necessarily vote for somebody because they were Catholic, but there's people I would not vote for because of their religion.

The way I look at it religion shouldn't be an issue, the candidate's character is more important (religion may be only an indicator). However I can't stand candidates who like to "preach from a pulpit" and make their religion (and opponents) and issue... much the same way I don't like candidates who purposefully wrap themselves in the flag...

Agreed. I prefer my politicians to keep their religious views to themselves.
I don't care what religion they are, I don't want to hear about it.

Of course it does!
 

I think it depends how close your relationship is with God. I am a Christian, which means I have a relationship with Jesus Christ i.e. I pray to him daily and read his word daily. The Bible should be a blueprint for the Christian lifestyle, so if a candidate doesn't profess Jesus Christ as their Lord, I wouldn't vote for them. The flipside of that is if they do profess Christ as their Lord, they must act accordingly. A lot of people say they don't like it when folks wear their religion on their sleeve. But see when you realize that your mere existence is because of Jesus, and what he's done for you, you can't help but let your light shine in all areas of your life. I guess for me, I don't understand how one can claim to love Christ, but dislike it when people say they believe in him publicly.

Religion matters to me but since we live in a pluralistic society I don't think it's right to force your religious beliefs on others. I believe that religion is something private and personal.

well i don't know how you force or push your beliefs on anyone..but again i think it depends on what God you believe in. no where in my bible does it say that your belief in christ is private or personal. we're supposed to let our light shine and win souls for Christ! ~ :D

BINGO! :D

That's one way to interpret those verses. I wrote a whole paper on this but that's a discussion for something besides the N&P forum.

I personally could not ever vote for a fundamentalist/creationist - as Teresa said last night, we need a president who not only understands science, but believes in it.

ETA: The verse I'm thinking of here is “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matt 6:1)

I respect anyone who as an individual takes their religion very seriously.

In government, however, you are charged with the responsability of governing many lives that don't necessarily share your views. This needs to be taken into account. If you represent those people, you need to be willing to act accordingly on their behalf. If you are a creationist Christian, you'd better listen to the 75% of your constituants that want evolution to be taught in public schools and creationism to be taught in Sunday schools.

it does to the extent of i would prefer to have a Christian in office, but i'm not NOT going to vote for someone if they aren't. but i totally see love_spell's viewpoint b/c that's what Evangelicals are taught....to spread the Word. it's our "duty" as Christians to let as many ppl as we can know about Christ. she's not talking about hackin a Bible at someone from 50 ft away, she's just talking about not denying what they believe and not only saying they're a Christian, but showing that they are. (right? :) )

i think it matters to me more than i originally thought b/c i find that ppl who are truly religious (which does not refer to the clintons or r.kelly :p ), stick to their morals better b/c they have a reason. whether you are buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Scientologist (is that considered a "religion"....i think so), there are guidelines that one should follow (which are all remarkably similar). not that atheists have no morals (i have plenty of non-evil atheist friends :D ), but i personally like the idea of doing something for a higher power as opposed to just doing something for myself.

***did not mean to offend anyone, so i apologize early if i did....everything here should be followed with a loud IMO. :)

yep you got it ;) glad somebody understands LOL gold star for alphagamdiva :D

I don't think anyone here was suggesting that politicians deny their religion. Only that some of us prefer not to hear about it. If someone were to ask a poltician what his/her religion was I think they have every right to answer that question.

It just that, I personally feel that there is no need to bring up your religion when you're talking about taxes or health care.

While religion shouldn't really matter, sometimes, politicians have to watch what they say/support. Catholic politicians (for example) on both sides of the border have been criticized by church leaders for supporting issues that are not pro-Catholic.

Thanks. People's religious beliefs are usually evident in how they behave so it's not like they would have to hide anything.

That pretty much sums up my feelings on it. I think the only way it would sway my vote would be if someone militantly athiest (athiest is fine, I considered myself one for a long time... I'm talking more like the "God is a curse word and we should ban Bibles from being printed" kind - trust me, I've met some) or satanic or something like that were on the ticket... I would have a hard time voting for them.

As some others have said, I thinking judges would be the one place I might vary... I would prefer to have judges holding seats who have the same beliefs as I do, both on moral and more straightforward matters. But I'm guessing it's pretty unlikely that someone of my religion will make it to the supreme court, unless Utah suddenly gets much more important politically :)

religion matters greatly to me in deciding who to vote for.
Last year there was a candidate for school board who was for teacher-led prayer in the schools- on my premise of religious freedom I had to vote against him.

I thought since you were a Democrat you would vote for these Christian evangelicals.

-Rudey

Define religious freedom.

I think you're trying to say "freedom from religion". As far as school board goes, why does it matter what a board member thinks in this regard? They're not going to get their way. If they tried it, there'd be hell to pay in court costs, attorney's fees, etc.. and they'd lose.

When I subbed, we had these "moments of silence" where kids were supposed to pray or do whatever. I think that's about as far as you can go though.

you should really check the context of this particular scripture and research what it means. He is referring to "practicing your piety"... what do you think that means? do you really think God wants us to be secret service Christians? LOL

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Mathew 5.16

I think what GP is saying is that you don't have to hide the fact the you are a Christian, but you don't have to tell everyone you meet that you are one too.
So, if I am not mistaken, what she is trying to say is that you can show people that you are Christian by the things you do, rather than the things you say.

Couldn't have said it better myself...

exactly. it means you shouldn't be all "i love Jesus!!!" in front of ppl just to make other ppl think you are a "believer" b/c you think it'll help your reputation or whatever.

stress the middle part instead of the first part: "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matt 6:1) this: "beware of practicing your piety before others for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven" is a LOT different than the way the verse really reads.

but i agree the Bible is always up for personal interpretation, but always consider the context when attempting to interpret.

like it or not, Christianity is a part of our nation......and also, like it or not, so are other religious beliefs or non-beliefs. ppl need to vote for who they personally need to vote for. if you want someone who won't bring religion into politics, by all means, vote for who you want. same goes for whoever wants religion considered in decisions. as long as no one infringes on other ppl's rights, i'm game. i don't want someone telling me where i can't pray, just as non-believers don't want someone forcing them to look at the 10 commandments. (which, i honestly, don't see a big deal with......but ya know.)

10 points to whoever takes the "10 commandment" comment and RUNS with it!!!! :)

I don't really take the religion of a candidate into consideration. I prefer to focus on the issues. But I would have a hard time voting for a candidate who was "advertising" his or her religion or making an issue of their opponents religion.
I think a lot of political candidates feel compelled to say they belong to a particular religion even if they don't practice, just because they don't want religion to be an issue in the campaign.

Gonna be a hard decision on the presidential election, huh? Both sides have over-played their religious beliefs, me thinks.

Everyone has good things to say.

My concern isn't with the President, judges, or even Senators. I got about 40 flyers in the mail for my hometown election (I'm not in a party, so I can only vote for things like Tax Collector or Supervisor of Elections). Even those candidates felt the need to mention what church they went to. THAT'S what bothered me, not that they were men of faith.

How does tax assessment or vote counting have anything to do with religion?

hmmmm, that is weird that offices that are perceived as being "lower" have canidates running around announcing their religious beliefs. the only reason i can think of, from the way you described the area, is that religion tends to be important to most people. the canidates may feel that they can sway some voters by saying i am an xyz believer.

as far as my opinion, i don't believe that religion should be an important part of a person's campaign. the reason is that no matter what religion they are, they do not represent everyone in their "area." i would never base my vote on what religion someone is, but i would not vote for someone who was overly religious- regardless of which religion.