Who would God vote for? For many voters who step into their polling places Nov. 7, that question is among the most important criteria in selecting a candidate.

And the discussion of faith isn’t just limited to Christian conservative candidates, who have attracted the most attention for melding faith and politics in recent years. Moderates and liberals, some say, are becoming more comfortable in talking about their faith as well.

“It’s time for mainline Christians to speak out, to be informed and to vote,” says the Rev. Barb Clinger, associate pastor at First United Methodist Church, 946 Vt. “God is not a Democrat or a Republican. God is not even an American.”

Faith and values issues remain an important element to campaigns. “Moral issues” were one of the most-cited motivating factors for voting in the 2004 presidential election, according to exit polls.

But one recent Gallup/USA Today survey showed voters belonging to both parties are losing faith when it comes to how well their values are represented in politics.

The poll said 41 percent of Americans believe the Republican party shares their views on religion “moderately well” or “very well,” down 12 percentage points from a year ago. The figure is 48 percent for Democrats, down 5 percent from October 2005.

Bill Lacy, the former Republican campaign strategist who now is director of the Dole Institute of Politics at Kansas University, attributes some of that balancing out to an ever-increasing rift within the Republican party on social issues, coupled with Democrats’ increasing willingness to talk about faith and values.

He points to the campaign of Harold Ford Jr., the Tennessee Congressman who is running for Senate there. Ford has been campaigning some in churches and has openly talked about his religion.

And, if framed correctly, even Democratic voters who don’t consider themselves religious can latch onto some of the discussion of values, Lacy says.

“I think there are a lot of Democrats who very clearly have strong agreement with what we would call traditional values with Republicans,” he says. “Often, the Democratic candidates don’t care to wear religion on their sleeves, or there are certain interest groups that weigh against them for going out and talking about these (values).”

Broadened discussion

Clinger says most of the religious-based political conversations in recent years have been on what she calls “wedge issues,” including abortion, stem cell research, gay marriage, capital punishment and gun control.

She says she wishes people of all political persuasions would focus more on the things they could agree on.

“The Great Commandment really sums it up,” she says. “We are to love God and our neighbors. If we do so, the primary concern of all people of faith should be on creating caring communities – places that provide education, health care and employment for all persons.”

The Rev. Marcus McFaul, senior pastor at First Baptist Church, 1330 Kasold Drive, says he’s seeing a broadening of the topics included when it comes to faith-based politics, including environmental concerns.

“I think other voices are being added to the debate,” he says. “When I hear, ‘The Christian position on X, Y and Z is …’ I know they’re not an observant Christian. I know there are multiple views on what represents a Christian point of view. That diversity was lost for a point in time. We’ve have to represent one small slice of it. I welcome a bit of expansiveness for that.”

Welcomed diversity

The Rev. Paul Gray, pastor at Heartland Community Church, 619 Vt., is among the more conservative pastors who says he has no problem with a discussion of faith from broader spectrum of politicians.

“I certainly don’t think God takes sides or is on one side or the other,” he says. “The important thing to me is that we’re on God’s side.”

Gray says he thinks faith should be “the most important issue” at the polls. And he worries too many politicians jump on the religion bandwagon simply to get votes.

“Some people, I think, just in their ads or talking points seem to think just by saying they belong to a church, or that they go to church or are a Christian, that implies people should vote for them,” he says. “When there’s, in fact, a lot more to it than that. I think some (candidates) are now starting to see people do put stock in faith and morals and ethics and integrity, and that when people vote they want to know whether they are a person of faith.”

The Rev. James Bush, pastor at First Southern Baptist Church, 4300 W. Sixth St., says he, too, worries about the “willingness of people of faith to become pawns to politicians for the sake of political interests.”

“People of faith have every right to be involved in politics,” Bush says. “But I am offended by the arrogance of some – I repeat some, not all – to act as though God is on their side.”

Bush says he doesn’t think moderates and liberals are becoming any more vocal about their faith than they have been in the past. He thinks they’re responding to faith issues in terms of saving the votes of a special interest group.

“They may have discovered they have ceded an interest group to the conservatives that they have every right to approach and attract,” Bush says. “Liberals and moderates may be every bit as social conservatives to be motivated on the basis of faith and values.”

Separation issues

That’s not to say everyone thinks faith should be a factor when heading to the polls.

Andrew Stangl, a KU senior from Wichita and president of the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics, says he sees too much discussion of God in politics, whether it’s faith-based initiatives coming from the White House or churches simply becoming more politically vocal.

A candidate’s faith, Stangl says, shouldn’t be an important factor in deciding who to vote for.

“I think it does play too much of a role,” he says. “It tends to shy away from the more important elements of the job, like can you do it, are you competent or are you educated enough to do the job. We should be focusing more on a person’s credentials and ability to do the job correctly than a person’s religion.”

But even Stangl admits that morals and ethics – though not necessarily those that are faith-based – should be among those credentials.

“I think they are (important), but they should be within the realm of reason,” he says. “It’s important to be able to say, ‘I’m ethical, I’m moral because this is what works within our society and it’s the right thing to do,’ not because we have an overlording deity saying we should do it this way.”

Even with celebrity evolutionist Richard Dawkins hitting the airwaves – and, last week, the Lied Center – to promote his new book, which strongly advocates for a removal of religion from politics, it seems unlikely that faith would ever be removed from the political process entirely. Polls have shown that around 90 percent of Americans believe in God.

“I don’t think faith can be a separate component of our life,” Gray says. “To me, our faith should affect every area of my life – it should affect how I deal with my finances, how I related to other people, how I drive. So to say that our faith is personal and completely separate from our thoughts and values is disingenuous.”