Written by Don Byrd
The Columbus Dispatch yesterday offered a fascinating look at a key difference between the 2 men running for Governor in Ohio. The focus is not on their policies, nor their religion, but on their attitudes toward the role of religion in their politics and public life.
The challenger, Ed Fitzgerald, prefers not to discuss his personal moral or religious beliefs regarding hot-button public policy issues:
“What I don’t do is I don’t have conversations where I kind of critique my own denomination. I understand the teachings of my church, I’ve gone to Mass for 46 years and I’m Catholic, but I don’t see my job as a public official to impose everything the church teaches as a matter of law,” he said.
Current Governor John Kasich, on the other hand:
. . . cites God regularly in public, such as in justifying the building of a Holocaust Memorial on the Statehouse grounds, expanding Medicaid to more than a quarter-million Ohioans, in graduation speeches, in his State of the State addresses and even during an event launching a campaign to prevent the elderly from falling. (“The Lord wants you to be strong and healthy.”)
“My faith is part of me. In terms of how it affects my public policy … on my best days, I sort of have an eternal perspective, which is really a great thing to have, because it frees you up. You don’t get caught up in some of the things that can get in your way when you make decisions.”
Read the whole thing.
