How a Baptist went for Romney

I have been on the Romney bandwagon since spring or early summer. At the time I was considering taking a stand, I waited for a week or so to see if Mike Huckabee’s sails would be filled by any sudden divine wind. As a fellow Southern Baptist I felt just a tad hesitant to publicly go against a fellow SBC candidate. When that divine lift didn’t happen, I plunged in for Gov. Romney, a candidate whose religious beliefs are considerably different than my own. I have to admit that if Huckabee’s later hot spell had taken place then I might well have landed in his camp instead. Looking back, I am glad things went as they did.

I think conservatives should keep three points in mind. One, what candidate has the best positions on the greatest number of important issues? Two, what candidate has the best chance of winning the general election next November, while sufficiently representing traditional conservative values? Three, which candidate has the best overall experience and background to actually be president?

I hope we in the conservative base – especially the conservative Christian base – do not fall into the trap of merely going with the candidate whose faith appears to be most like our own. This is tempting, certainly. Yet we are voting for commander-in-chief, not pastor-in-chief. I urge readers to step back, watch, listen and read, seeing just where each man stands on issues and how each one answers questions about his record and his plans.

I will also address the second of the three points very quickly. The 2008 election will be a crucial one. For conservative voters, I strongly believe that having a strong social, fiscal and national defense conservative in the White House 2009-13 is the real goal. If the Democrats retake the White House, I see no way that this will happen. The party that fields some conservative candidates therefore must nominate someone who is electable outside of a handful of very “red” states. I strongly believe that the Judeo-Christian beliefs of this country make up its bedrock of support and that God has clearly been present throughout our history. Yet as a graduate history student, I have seen no apparent cases of the Lord directly intervening in a presidential election. Therefore I would not necessarily count on a miraculous divine hand lifting a candidate to a totally unexpected victory in 2008 just because he has been a pastor in a denomination we feel is close to the Lord’s heart. In fact we already see Rev. Huckabee starting to fall by the wayside.
In my mind a person of faith and integrity, with impeccable family credentials, outstanding leadership, management and organizational skills who has grown and matured in his positions on positions as an adult is our best hope. This sentence may well describe more than one candidate. I leave it to each reader to do his or her homework and see which one it really describes best.

For me it is clearly Mitt Romney, family man, devout religious man, social, fiscal and militarily conservative and an apt leader and manager. To me, anyone who votes for or against a candidate merely based on his/her denomination is not using the vote wisely.

Please check out Evangelicals For Mitt (evangelicalsformitt.com) for more on this topic, or get hold of Hugh Hewitt’s outstanding book, A Mormon in the White House?.