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Land: Candidates should be free, not forced, to share faith |
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WASHINGTON (BP)--Candidates for the White House and other offices should be free to say how their religious beliefs impact them but should not be expected to explain the specifics of their faith, Southern Baptist church-state specialist Richard Land said at a forum on religion in the 2008 election.
Appearing with five other panelists, Land said there needs to be a "careful distinction" in how candidates address their faith. They should be free to talk about how their beliefs influence their values and performance, "but they shouldn't either be asked to be or volunteer to be a spokesperson for their faith tradition, in other words talking about the particulars of their faith," said the president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
"I think to go into the particular beliefs of a particular faith and to try to grill a candidate on that is an intrusion into his personal faith," Land said. "I think what we want to know in a campaign is how that person's faith impacts them.
"I think that a candidate ought to talk about his faith to the extent he's comfortable talking about his faith or she's comfortable talking about her faith, and do so as a way of introducing themselves ... if they choose to," he said, adding that voters will decide on candidates who decide not to talk about their faith.
"But you shouldn't talk about it if it's not comfortable, and you shouldn't try to fake it," Land said.
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