Moral Leadership - Church & State
One of the key items identified in this year's Presidential election was that most US citizens were looking for "Moral Leadership" from their elected officials. While on the surface, that sounds very noble but shortly beneath the covers, this raises significant questions. Not to mention "what is moral" which we'll leave for later, but let's start at "whose" morals are we to be governed by? Are the moral guiding principles that govern sexual relationships as well as business transactions as well as how we treat each other as human beings the same? If one is governing based on "Moral Leadership" how important is it that the candidate make their view of "morals" transparent and ultimately accountable to the American public? Where does one get "Morals" from anyway?
Ahhh.....a classic dilemma, the Separation of Church & State. Many argue that morals are things that have a deep foundation in ones religious belief system. If this is true, doesn't one run afoul of a very basic tenet of our government, that being the separation of church & state? When our clerics, rabbis, priests, ministers, preachers, begin telling us how to vote because of "their" interpretation of what "God" would like to see, then it seems that to me that the line is being crossed. If this scenario doesn't apply, then how do most American's formulate their "morals" by which they measure their decisions for electing a new candidate?
When millions of dollars and significant effort is being expended by our religious institutions to help influence the outcome of a major American election, all in the name of "Morals and Values", we begin walking a very thin line as a nation. I'm not advocating a complete revolution here but a serious discourse on the role of church and the importance we place on a candidates moral compass.
