When he ran for president in 1960, John F. Kennedy made a promise to the American people.At the time, he was accused of being unduly influenced by his Catholic faith, to the point that some Protestants feared he would let the Pope dictate policy. He insisted that he neither represented the Catholic Church nor was he represented by it, but that on controversial issues he would make his decision “in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates.”In essence, he promised that if the American people did not allow his faith to interfere with electing him, he would not allow it to interfere with his obligations as President. He was the first Catholic elected to office after a long line of Protestants, and the only ever to hold that office so far.Kennedy recognized something essential – so essential that the founding fathers made it part of the first rule of freedom in the Bill of Rights. As citizens, we recognize the danger of allowing religion to become a part of our government and we have made a commitment not to favor one religion over the other or to support a religious idea with no identifiable secular purpose. Favoring one religion or, worse, establishing one religion as the “American” religion, leads to persecution – the very persecution that our forefathers fled, the persecution that caused this country to be established in the first place. Separation of church and state is not only an essential part of our government and our democracy, it’s a part of our culture and a part of the backbone of our concept of freedom.What’s disturbing, then, is that our current smorgasbord of presidential candidates are not following Kennedy’s lead, or heeding the wisdom of our forefathers. Faith and its expression have become essential parts of their campaigns, the exact opposite of the way it should be. Instead of remaining a private, personal element of their spirituality, faith has become a key factor in measuring candidates’ worth.Perhaps the most disturbing example of this is former Gov. Mike Huckabee, whose goal of passing constitutional amendments for the “right to life” and defining marriage as between one man and one woman have clear religious motivations stemming from his personal beliefs, rather than what’s best for the American people.On his own campaign Web site, he says, “My faith doesn’t influence my decisions, it drives them.” He embraces and endorses the integration of church and state. He’s a former pastor and leader of the entire denomination of Baptists in Arkansas. He also won the caucus in Iowa and has finished no less than fourth in all the other primaries and states.A man who is so heavily twisted by his religion should not even be in the running, but the fact that he’s doing so well is doubly disturbing. This is not the direction America should go. If this country were ever to violate its own dictate and establish a national religion, it would be because of Huckabee and men like him. Huckabee does not respect the boundary between religion and government – he doesn’t even recognize it exists. This alone should disqualify him from the running. Recognizing the diversity of America and respecting the citizens he serves requires that he refuse to impose his religious beliefs upon them, especially if he’s using – and thus, abusing – his position of power to do so.That’s true of any candidate. We are not a Christian nation – that was decided with the writing of our Constitution more than 200 years ago. We are a nation that happens to have a lot of Christians. In no way does that give us the right to impose Christianity on those living here who are not Christian.And unless he performs a radical transformation, that is exactly what Huckabee unabashedly intends to do.

-Ruthie Kelly is a journalism junior.

-This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com. Anonymous letters will not be printed – include your full name, major and year in school.