It is late in the evening on January 3, 2008 and I have just arrived at a motel in Des Moines, Iowa. The Iowa caucuses, both Republican and Democratic, have produced remarkable results, insurgents have emerged victorious in both sets of caucuses. It seems that younger people, first-time caucus goers, have had a huge impact.

In the parking lot of my motel, there are young people milling around cars with Obama stickers. They seem stunned, just standing about with goofy, happy looks on their faces. It is difficult to wade around them and try to get to the door to check in. I’m not campaigning in Iowa, I’m just driving home from vacation on my way to Chicago.

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“God is watching you,” sang Leslie Phillips in her evangelical Christian chart-topping hit. One verse is particularly apt in regard to the sudden decline in religious references by some presidential candidates in the “Granite State.” “When you always have to win - God is watching you” seems especially to apply in the noted decline in God references by some as the campaigns switches to this New England state.

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For a Christian, I had a partly Jewish upbringing. My father, a civil engineer, worked for a construction company that was employed for five years in completely renovating the Jewish resort, Grossingers. This was a long daily commute for my father from our suburb outside New York City to the Catskills. In the summers, therefore, we lived at Grossingers. From that experience, I lived and learned that Judaism is family and food totally blended with religion. Furthermore, most New Yorkers, no matter what their faith, are sort of Jewish anyway.

In my adult life, I have taught with Rabbis, had Jewish students in my classes and spoken in many synagogues. In all this I have come to appreciate even more that Judaism is an ancient practice of living faith that has endured through enormous, even unprecedented persecution and mass murder. While some forms of the Jewish faith, such as the Reformed tradition, engage modernity and others, such as the Orthodox tradition, resist modern culture, Judaism as a whole remains not so much a belief system as a vibrant way of interpreting life lived with God.

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Since “stupid” is not one of the “Seven Deadly Sins” (though I think it should make the list), I’m going with pride as the deadliest sin for the United States of America in recent years. Deaths of U.S. troops, deaths of Iraqi civilians and military, death upon death has been the result of overreaching pride on the part of the United States in attacking a country that had not attacked us first. In theological terms, this is hubris, hubris or hybris from the Greek. According to its modern usage, hubris is exaggerated self-pride or self-confidence (overbearing pride), often resulting in fatal retribution. I’d say that fits.

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The Bible teaches that “perfect love drives out fear,” but human beings, in truth, are far from perfect. I know in my heart that as a person of faith, the worldwide stock sell off should not fill me with fear for the future, but I would be less than truthful if I didn’t say that when the British benchmark falls 5.5%, the Indian is down 7.4%, the Hong Kong blue chips drop 5.5%, its biggest percent drop since the 9/11 attacks and the Canadian stocks drop as well that I look with dread on this coming week on Wall Street.

Investors around the world, as well as the Wall Street traders, were not impressed by the economic stimulus package proposed by the President. Was it not enough? Is the fear too deep? Is there a “perfect storm” brewing made up of runaway spending on the war in Iraq, a sub-prime mortgage crisis, the rolling decline in sectors related to the housing mess and all accelerated by rising oil prices?

In short, is our fear justified?

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As a citizen, I want to keep Mike Huckabee as far away from the U.S. Constitution as I possibly can. If the constitutional amendment he proposes were successful, we would also have to take out the First Amendment, or at least edit it down and eliminate “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” “God’s standards,” in Huckabee’s words, are establishment of religion, i.e. legally privileging one religious view over another.

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Religious leaders provide the face of faith for the rank and file members and also for the public. This is true no matter what the organization of the religious body and how the leader is viewed in theological terms. This is as true for the Latter-day Saints or the Greek Orthodox Church as it is in my denomination, the United Church of Christ. In the UCC, for example, Rev. John Thomas, General Minister and President, plays a crucial role for us in giving face and voice to our church commitments. John has done a wonderful job of representing us during our “God is Still Speaking” campaign and as head of our denomination.

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