The Kind of Faith Hillary Has

It has been interesting to watch this election cycle get into full swing. Over a month ago, when I was in New Orleans, I happened upon a CNN interview with the leading Democratic Presidential candidates discussing their faith and how this plays out in their political lives. Truth be told, I was impressed with all of their answers. Barack Obama talked of coming to faith as an adult. John Edwards talked about how prayer and faith became especially important during the trying times when he lost a child and when his wife was diagnosed with cancer. And Hillary Clinton talked about teaching Sunday school and the importance of learning forgiveness. Clearly she was talking about the missteps of her former President husband and the very difficult and publicized (dare I say politicized) events that followed. In a nutshell, she stressed that one does not get through a situation as devastating as that without faith. Listening to her, I felt for her and respected her all the more.

It is interesting that for most evangelicals, Hillary Clinton is anathema. She is the great evil that Revelation speaks of. In a recent article in the New York Times an evangelical Christian referred to the faith like Hillary's, a "faith that believes in everything but God." I must admit that a few years ago I would have been in that camp. But I am beginning to understand how God works in our lives a little better and I am learning a lot about dealing with my own preconceived notions and prejudices about people. What is striking, and completely hypocritical of most of us, is that we want to judge others by their actions, but we want others to judge us by our intentions. In other words, we want for people to look beyond our human foibles and see how God is at work in our lives, but we cannot give the same grace to anyone else, especially someone in the public eye as often as Hillary Clinton.

In another recent NY Times spread, evangelicals were complaining that the Republican field was not conservative enough, and the candidates who were conservative were not really viable, electable candidates. Most are one of the following: pro-choice, or pro-Iraq war, or in favor of gay marriage or whatever. The most significant thing to me was that the evangelicals (in Iowa, at least) felt it would be better to have a Republican, even if he was not ideologically conservative, than to have a Democrat at all. I wondered, should the Devil run, would they vote for him rather than for Hillary?

Personally, I don't love any of the candidates, but I am willing to admit that the Republicans just don't get it this time around. And, maybe we need a change of course or a different set of eyes looking at some of our problems to find the answers. Maybe these answers will be God's answers if we are smart enough to see them and He just might work His will in this country through a Democrat, one with a faith that may not match ours, but may just be as authentic as ours.

How would you vote? How would Jesus vote?