Christianity and governance
Christianity cannot be the basis for governing a nation. Unlike Islam, which has a model for law known as sharia, Christianity is based on having a personal relationship between the believer and God. Jesus didn't say anything about how to run a town, a city or an empire.
It's one of the points Gregory Boyd made in his book, "The Myth of a Christian Nation," which I reviewed a couple months ago. While there was much I disagreed with in Boyd's book, this is one subject that resonated with me, because sometimes a nation must do things which a Christian cannot justify by faith.
One of those things, which I have defended, is the practice of waterboarding. I don't believe waterboarding is torture. But even if it is, I believe that the government needs to have the power to do this to known-terrorists in ticking-time-bomb scenarios to protect the American people from attack.
It is not the Christian thing to do.
Which brings us to GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist minister. Huckabee opposes waterboarding and wants to close down the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay. These may be the Christian things to do (or they may not), but they aren't good for the country or the safety of its citizens.
Ironically, this would be the sort of use of religious beliefs on public policy positions that many on the left would applaud because the result is what they would like it to be. Huckabee undoubtedly has that same religious instinct informing his opposition to abortion -- it's at that point that the left wants religion removed from public life.
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Both McCain and Huckabee disqualify themselves in my eyes by ruling out waterboarding. If you can't bring yourself to imagine a situation in which waterboarding is the lesser of evils, you don't have what it takes to be President in these times. We're lucky Truman was made of tougher stuff.