It is disingenuous to watch politicians quote the Bible and talk about family values, to court voters with their piety, then expect those concepts to be dropped from the conversation when things go south, as they often do.
If a politician leaves talking about their faith out of it, then I agree with you - it shouldn't be an issue.
But, if like Mark Sanford, they talk about their "moral legitimacy", then the tactics they used on the way up are the ones that will bite them on the way back down.
It is flat out silly to expect everyone to stand by and resist the urge to point out Mark Sanford's hypocrisy. It goes against everything we know about human nature.
At a recent Executive board meeting of three county party’s I attended, I was embarrassed that a lady got up and stated she was reluctant to nominate or front candidates from her district because they were Mormon, as she was.
She mentioned the reaction from Evangelicals towards Mitt Romney (who I don’t support, but not because he is Mormon).
This attitude is what I mean, that candidates must fit into someone’s perceived church, or do not apply.
In all honesty, I am unsure what to make of this. On the one hand, I recognize that some Evangelicals dislike the Mormon faith. On the other hand, I (and many others) have been accused more than once of being "anti-Mormon" because I will not support Mitt Romney. The willingness of some to blame their failures on "anti-Mormonism" is very real.
Without more information, I really cannot comment except to say that I am not an Evangelical, and Mitt Romnney's Mormonism doesn't play a part in why I'd never ever vote for him. His liberalism and his utter inability to have an opinion that he didn't garner from polling data does. I would absolutely vote for a Mormon if they had ideas that meshed with mine.
In the meantime, like I keep saying, Dems circle the wagons and retain their candidates who represent their view well and we end up where we are, under Democrat rule, completely.
If we want to stop being judged on moral issues, we have to stop running on them. There is far too much moralizing in politics, far too much pandering. It is a double-edged sword, as we've seen this week and before. We'll continue to see it as long as we allow or prefer politicians who pander.
For the record, I'm not calling for God to be removed from the equation. I am for politicians living a good, moral life rather than talking about it endlessly.
I’ve laid out Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, as have others.
As long as we run the party as an extension of someone’s church, we fall into their traps.
No one wants to hear it and thinks more theolgically based candidates will work better.
It hasn’t yet!!!