I think most people want competence first and ideology second. That would include religious belief. Knowing where -- or if -- someone attends religious services and his/her view of God is interesting, but it tells me nothing about how the candidate, if elected, will run the country. Too often in the past, presidential candidates on both sides have used religious language and practices as a tool for helping attract a certain demographic. But sometimes those presidents have been a disappointment, because the expectations that come from religious believers are not uniform.

Better, then, not to put one's faith up-front, but to first establish one's positions and vision in the public mind. Then, if a candidate wishes to talk about religious faith, that's fine. After all, we are electing a president of a country that is part of a fallen world. We are not members of a search committee looking for a new pastor. They are two different "kingdoms."

There is no "gradation" of sin in Scripture. The notion of "seven deadly sins" is not a product of biblical theology, but something added by elements of the early church and promoted by the Roman Catholic church which divided sin into the categories "venial" and "mortal." Paul writes "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" and "there is no one righteous, no not one." The only "deadly" sin is the rejection of Jesus the Christ as Savior and His payment for our sin.

As I understand it, Huckabee was responding to a question about abortion and same-sex marriage and noting how the courts have sometimes acted outside what the Constitution says to read their own prejudices into our founding document. In that context, what I heard him saying was not that we had to conform the Constitution to the Bible, but rather conform the courts to the Constitution. There's a big difference. If anyone were to suggest that the Bible should be the basis of the government of the United States he would be wrong to do so and violate the same Constitution he purports to uphold.

We have too many "leaders" and not enough followers of the only Leader (Jesus of Nazareth) who knows where he is going. To the extent that earthly "leaders" are following Him, they are good company, but they must not divert our attention from the one who knows and is "The Way, The Truth and The Life."