Written by Don Byrd
At the NYTimes’ Room for Debate this week, the paper asks, “Why do voters care about a candidate’s religion? Does it matter?” The debaters offer a variety of perspectives in response.
Professor Randy Boyagoda says the problem is not that voters care too much about the religion of elected officials, but that they “care too much . . . in the wrong ways:”
American voters who care about the role religion plays in national affairs should give up on the syrupy salvation stories. Instead, they should expect to hear from candidates how they would draw on religious traditions, formulations and ideas about human flourishing and human community, and how candidates would bring these profound insights into a fruitful conversation with the important insights that have emerged from secular sources and traditions.
Author Colleen Carroll Campbell writes:
Voters absolutely should take a politician’s religious beliefs into consideration. But that consideration should be shrewd rather than sectarian, driven by a desire to understand how a candidate’s worldview guides his decisions.
Professor Anthea Butler says religious organizations impose the issue on voters:
Candidates’ religious beliefs are an issue for many American voters because conservative religious organizations, lobbying heavily on moral issues, make it so.
Read the rest of the discussion here.
