October 6, 2005
Since President Bush nominated Harriett Miers to the Supreme Court, there have been a flurry of stories about her evangelical roots and beliefs, her conversion, her church and pastor and how one of her closest friends, who is now on the Texas Supreme Court, prayed with her the day she accepted Christ.
This is all interesting, but it is not relevant to her potential role as a justice unless we know whether her faith influences her judicial world view.
In the past we have had declared evangelicals hold high office, only to find they keep their faith and jobs separate.
That leads me to wonder what difference faith makes if it doesn’t affect your mind?Secularists are not required to put their non faith on hold when holding public office.
Only Christians are required to do that.
So, while the depth of Harriet Miers’ faith is important to her and to her relationship with God and her destiny in eternity, unless it shapes her view of the law and the ultimate law-giver, it is merely window dressing designed to gain support among conservative evangelicals.
We’ll see about this during the upcoming hearings.
I’m Cal Thomas in Washington.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.
