Is faith the most important issue in the 2008 presidential race?

News reports indicate religious faith is one of the most important issues in the 2008 presidential election—right up there with the Iraq war, economy, immigration, environment, education, health care, and terrorism. I wonder, When did faith become an "issue"?

I don't know whether pundits, political analysts, or the presidential candidates themselves decided faith would be a hot topic for this election. Maybe the public—or even we Christians—did. In any case, candidates clearly are making their beliefs known. Mike Huckabee's campaign slogan is "Faith. Family. Freedom." Hillary Clinton spoke about faith and works at Saddleback Church's 2007 HIV/AIDS Summit. Barack Obama's website lists a phone number voters can call to pray for him and his family.

Had I accumulated any of the wisdom that’s supposed to come with age?

I’ve recently been feeling a bit old. This feeling started when my friend Carrie asked me for relationship advice. “I’m hoping a wise woman like you will have ideas for handling my situation,†she said. The word wise made me wonder when I’d transitioned from the young, advice-seeking girl to the old, advice-giving woman. And the notion occurred to me that maybe I hadn’t suddenly become old; maybe, to paraphrase Sunset Boulevard’s aging actress Norma Desmond, it was the girls who got young.

Granted, I’ve always felt much younger than I am. I’ll turn 42 next month, but I feel like I’m in my 20s. I like to believe my taste in music and movies has remained reasonably hip over the years. I still wear my hair long and unkempt because I refuse to succumb to perfectly coiffed “mom hair.†And while I do indeed drive a minivan, I hit the gas in cool motorcycle boots that are the envy of my 20- and 30something friends.

Why growing in faith means walking backwards

Recently I came across a journal I kept when I was a new believer and my children were toddlers. In those days, my husband and I were on our way out of farming, and I taught at the local public school. Mitzi, a fellow teacher—younger than I, but a lifelong Christian—had given me a blank book for Christmas. Its cover was a field of watercolor wildflowers in lavenders, pinks, greens, and Mitzi had labeled its first page “Blessing Book.â€

A prayer journal was a new idea for me, so perhaps I misunderstood Mitzi’s intention. Or perhaps I understood it but objected to writing in a book with a cutesy cover (there was even a butterfly) or embracing the lingo of my evangelical acquaintances, who were forever reporting on the “blessings†and “ministries†and “stumbling blocks†of their “walk†and being “convicted†about this or that. To be honest, the entire Christian world in which I found myself as a new believer embarrassed me, despite my terrifying encounter with that passage in Luke where Jesus says if we’re embarrassed to acknowledge him, then he’ll disown us before the heavenly assembly (Luke 12:9).

I kept dwelling on how I should be the one looking that good.

At a dinner party a few years ago, I encountered an acquaintance whose job involved planning parties and events. She’d lost a lot of weight and looked incredible in her sleek black dress. She didn’t have to do any of the actual work at the party; she had “people†for that.

That’s when the green-eyed monster—envy—attacked. I don’t have “people,†I thought. I don’t even own a black dress.

The more I thought about her, the more I hated her. Even though I know all the biblical admonitions against it, I couldn’t stop envying this woman. The harder I tried, the more envy I felt.