When our country was formed many years ago the founders put forth an idea called the separation of church and state. Over the last several years this concept and its definition has been called into question repeatedly. This issue has played a role in the debate over gay marriage, abortion and several other faux-critical social issues (for now we’ll ignore the debate over whether the government should have any control of these things or not).

Question: What did the congregation of Deists, Protestants and assorted others that formed our constitution mean? Answer: The president does not have the right to enforce his beliefs on the country or use them for policy making in such a way that it would violate the beliefs of other sects in the country.

I am obligated to spend some time focusing on Mike Huckabee here. I can’t think of any better way to state the problem with Huckabee then by quoting him directly from his website where he states “My faith is my life — it defines me. My faith doesn’t influence my decisions, it drives them.”

This is fine for Huckabee’s personal life, but when you strive to take on the responsibility of running the world’s most powerful and diverse country in order to properly represent everybody, you have to be willing to make some personal sacrifices.

I know that there are some reading this article even now who are planning their angry comments and rebuttals, but let me ask you this-what do you think of Mitt Romney’s religious affiliations?

My bet would be that most strong Huckabee supporters and defenders would not be a fan of Romney’s beliefs as a Mormon. Romney’s faith includes many things that seem strange to the average Protestant. Mormonism claims to be a Christian sect because its followers believe in Jesus as the savior. However, the vast majority of traditional Protestant churches do not look at Mormonism as a sect of Christianity and most Protestants would not elect a Mormon to rule our “Christian country.”

So what does it say when so much of protestant America praises Huckabee’s dedication to a religion, but would never vote for Romney because of his dedication to a religion. It tells us that the idea of keeping faith out of the election process was thrown away a long time ago.

I know that you can tell me where any candidate stands on the religiously motivated social issues mentioned earlier, but I wonder, without looking it up, how many people could tell me Huckabee’s plan to revive the dollar or Romney’s view on our Cuban policy?

In a world where we are already loathed for our intolerance and religious monopolization, a religiously influenced election makes a statement that I am not proud of. For the vast majority of current college students whoever we elect now is going to be running the country when we graduate. Let’s pay attention to the issues that really matter and run this election like our founders intended it — based on real issues not religious affiliations.

Tell Joe how religion influences your political ideologies at [email protected]