Watch Jennifer Wishon's extended interview with Stephen Mansfield.
As you consider which presidential candidate you'll vote for in just a few weeks, it's important that you know about his or her faith and not just the religious labels the candidates use says Stephen Mansfield.
The New York Times best-selling author and sought after speaker says asking tough questions about the candidates' faith is "part of exercising the sacred duty of voting," during a recent interview with Beltway Buzz.
"Most people today fashion together a religion from a variety of beliefs and influences," Mansfield says, "and even to say a person is Southern Baptist doesn't tell you everything about what they might believe politically so we don't want to know so much about the institution of your faith, we want to know what have you put together of different beliefs that may affect you politically."
Mansfield's latest book, Ask The Question, is about why Americans must demand religious clarity from their candidate.
He points to what happened in 2008 as a good example.
Then-candidate Barack Obama, a self-proclaiming Christian, told voters he was against same sex marriage. After he was elected president his opinion "evolved" to support same sex marriage based on his reading of the Sermon on the Mount.
Transcript below:
Wishon: Why should Americans demand religious clarity from presidential candidates?
Mansfield: Well, because it's part of who they are. We want to know everything about them. We want to know their policies, we want to know their histories we want to know their education. We want to know if they've ever been a member of the Klan if they've ever been a part of a club that didn't allow women, didn't allow blacks or Hispanics or Asians. We want to know anything about them good, bad or ugly. It's part of exercising the sacred duty of voting and so we certainly want to know any type of faith they may be sincere about that's going to shape what they do in office.
Wishon: You write that Americans can't afford not to find out.
Mansfield: Exactly...But that's what we do with the candidates and religion. God bless America, I'm faith based, my politics grow out of my faith - well what is that faith? We never ask that question. Then we get in office and there can be a decided influence of their faith, there can even be a reversal of faith and so on - we need to know all of those possibilities before they get in office because with some presidents their faith has been the most defining thing about their administration or at least about certain major decisions that they made and we had no idea that those changes and shifts were possibilities.
Wishon: Historically when did it start becoming important to be open about sharing his faith and when did voters start wanting to know more about a candidate's faith?
Mansfield: I think we, in early American history it would have been commonplace - discussions about religion happened all the time famously Jefferson running for president, Lincoln running for president we talked about faith a great deal, there were great controversies and then in the early 1900's it sort of faded a little bit - religion was less of an interest, we just assumed everyone was at least nominally Christian. We were glad for the presidents to acknowledge God and go to church and so on but where it really changed was in the late 70's. you had Jimmy Carter who sort of quote on quote came out about being born again right about that time, then you had the rise of the religious right, the march for Jesus and Washington for Jesus and Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, others who were vocal of the marriage of faith and politics so that sort of moved faith to the center and almost every candidate has felt the need to make some kind of startement about their faith ever sense. And so now it's not others who are sort of putting faith into play - it's the candidates themselves - even Hillary Clinton, even Barack Obama, even people on the left you wouldn't think would be primarily faith based perhaps given our traditions but that's shifting. Now you have a very vocal religious left, very vocal religious right - everybody except for maybe Bernie Sanders was strongly faith based in their politics. And so now it's just an obligation to be out about your religion. And that's why we need to ask the questions because while they're vocal they're often not clear. I think pastors are recognizing an obligation from God and from Scripture to at least speak about a Biblical world view, to at least speak about impications of faith for how we treat the poor, how we treat immigratns, etc. even if they don't endorse certain candidates so endorsing a candidate would still be a violation of IRS regulations although some do but I think all are recognizing that faith speaks to public policy and they need to be vocal about it.
Wishon: You say that media gets it wrong when it comes to religion - what do you mean by that?
Mansfield: Well, most media, present company excepted, treats religion like it's an oddity in a person's life, like it's a wart on their nose - kind of weird thing in their resume rather than just a normal part of their life. I think it's a good trend now that we're trying to start to understand what does your faith mean for how you're going to govern? Most people today fashion together a religion from a variety of beliefs and influences and even to say a person is southern Baptist doesn't tell you everything about wht they might believe politically so we don't want to know so much about the institution of your faith, we want to know what have you put together of different beliefs that may affect you politically? Explain that in detail. You know, politics is often a choice between hold your nose and hold your nose tighter, you know, you don't choose between perfect, we're not voting for Jesus. We're voting for people who are flawed, people who are mixed and the question is who gets closer to your values and are you willing to vote for them. I mean, I suppose, being pro- life if there was an election between a Marxist and a pro-life Marxist then I'd vote for the pro-life Marxist well people may say Mansfield's voting for a Marxist no, I'm just getting as close as I can to my world view and my values.
Wishon: Well, we've already seen faith play a big roll in the 2016 primary season, what role do you see it playing in the general election?
Mansfield: I think you're going to have in the general election, a contest, where Hillary Clinton who is a lifelong social gospel Methodist who is well versed in the Bible, well versed in religious discussion, well versed in Methodist lore, she's going to take the upper hand religiously. We've already seen, there was a Democratic strategy book that got accidentally posted online and it shoed that they're going to try to show Donald Trump as a man with no core, a man without values, even a man who's dishonest - well those are basically religious charges so I think we're going to see Hillary Clinton use her strength in her religious background and her articulate nature when it comes to religion to Trump Trump so to speak on the subject of religion and then what will happen is Mister Trump will probably have to get spokesmen to go out and defend him so to speak because that's just not what he does - he's a business man, he's not a theologian or a preacher so I think we'll see religion come front and center in the general election but I think it's going to be contentious and I think it will probably be between Hillary Clinton and the spokesmen for Donald Trump which will include some of the Evangelicals we've been mentioning.
Wishon: President Obama evolved in a lot of his thinking and of course we all evolve in our opinions but it's radically changed America in terms of you know what's acceptable and what's not - is that something that you think - I mean even as Clinton maybe tries to push herself as the more spiritual, Biblical person at least with the knowledge - do you think voters will remember Obama in 2008 and kind of where he has evolved.
Mansfield: I think Hillary Clinton's task is harder because of Barack Obama's spiritual journey. This is a man who ran for office opposed to same sex marriage then changed his view in office, he said, based on his reading of the sermon on the mount so I think even secular Americans, even atheistic Americans are suspicious, cautious, want to know more, aren't just ignoring a person's faith as that wart on the nose as I mentioned, as that side issue but are really saying wait a minute - don't just tell me you're a social gospel Methodist Hillary Clinton, tell me exactly what that means. Is there a possibility for a change? Her husband is the one who signed the defense of marriage act into law. She defended it with scripture at the time and then reversed herself. She's reversed herself on same sex marriage. She's even said that women get abortions based on their religious views. Okay, fair enough if that's your religion, but show us that you're consistent, explain what it means, explain where it comes from explain what it will mean for you in office and so I do think Americans are perhaps not more cynical but more cautious because there may have been people on the left who voted for Barack Obama because he was left leaning in his politics but also opposed to same sex marriage and then he switched on the very faith that they thought that they understood so now they're going to ask more questions and I think that's going to be good for our process ultimately.
Wishon: For people who don't have a faith -should they be afraid of a candidate's faith or should they be afraid of a candidate expressing his or her faith?
Mansfield: They shouldn't be anymore afraid of a candidate's faith than they would be the candidate's ideology or their education or perhaps the books they might read while in office. We know some president's have read books that said hey so this is how it's supposed to be and changed what they campaigned on the fact is there are a lot of different influences on a candidate's mind and heart while they're in office, religion is one of them for some of them it's the primary thing - the non- religious shouldn't fear it but they should try to understand it.