OLIVER KIMOKEO | sports editor

History shows there has always been a precedence of faith in the White House.

Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has established himself as a frontrunner for his party’s nomination to become the 44th president of our proud nation. On Jan. 3, Huckabee won the Iowa Republican Caucuses, a key step in establishing political clout for the nomination.

The 2008 presidential election is unlike any other in the history of this country. For the first time, there may be a female president, Senator Hillary Clinton or a black president Senator Barrack Obama of the Democrat Party. Additionally, there is a front-runner Republican, Governor Mitt Romney, who is a Mormon.

And if that diversity is not enough, Mike Huckabee is a former pastor who is making faith his forefront campaign priority. According to Huckabee’s official stance on various issues from his campaign website, he states: “My faith is my life—it defines me. My faith doesn’t influence my decisions, it drives them.”

It is truly refreshing to observe a candidate who is willing to stand upon his faith as a major platform for the presidency. Before his 10-year term as Governor of Arkansas, Huckabee was ordained a Southern Baptist minister.

On his platform of faith and politics, Huckabee says “the First Amendment requires that expressions of faith be neither prohibited nor preferred.” Additionally, “faith gives us strength in the face of injustice and motivates us to do our best for ‘the least of us.’”

While Huckabee kept his words as spiritually ambiguous as possible to not segregate his supporters of various faiths and religions, he believes that faith should be a platform when it comes to choosing a president. I wholeheartedly agree with him.

Despite modern criticism against faith integrated with government, there has been a precedence of faith in the White House and in the foundation of our nation. Several national decrees, oaths and mottos have made faith or God a point of emphasis in their statements.

The Pledge of Allegiance states the U.S.A. is one nation under God. After taking the Presidential Oath of Office, custom requires the president-elect to say, “So help me God.” The U.S. National Motto is “In God We Trust.”

In the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, it states: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

There is absolutely a faith within our nation’s history and to claim otherwise would be a foolish notion. Now, precedence should not always dictate the present but it should at least be respected and revered. God, as Creator, should be remembered as we progress through this election.

Separation of church and state, referenced in the First Amendment, is often used as a reason to say a president should not make reference to his personal faith in the White House. For, to do so, would be damaging to keep government and religion separated.

My response to those who use that argument is that they are missing the true context of separation of church and state. The Amendment only states that “Congress should pass no law respecting an establishment of religion.” It makes no statement whatsoever to how the President believes in his faith or how he speaks of his faith.

The president is an influential figure in America but that should not prevent him or her from speaking freely about faith in relation to being elected. The president does have the freedom of religion just as all Americans do.

Additionally, candidates for the presidency are running on a platform of ideas and philosophies. For the candidate not to truly represent himself or herself in the truest form would be damaging to the American voter. If we as voters, are not given the opportunity to learn about a candidate’s faith, then we truly are lost in a sea of ignorance.

In a recent speech last month titled “Faith in America,” Romney said: “There are some who would have a presidential candidate describe and explain his church’s distinctive doctrines. To do so would enable the very religious test the founder prohibited in the Constitution. No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith.”

I respectfully disagree with Romney’s belief that a candidate should not represent himself as a spokesperson for his or her faith. The candidates are supposed to be representatives for the issues they believe are important, but to hide your faith would be deceitful and misguiding. I want everything there is to know about a candidate, including his or her background and faith, before endorsing them.

Huckabee is putting his faith out there front and center while Romney is hiding behind the cloak of “I’m a man of faith and I’m a candidate for the president of the United States.”

Faith is not meant to be separate from our everyday endeavors—faith is from within us. I am not endorsing either canidate but rather a person who is not afraid to keep their faith in the dark for the voters of America.