Ask The Question by Stephen Mansfield

Mansfield believes we should demand religious clarity from our Presidential candidates.


First off, at the back of this book are three speeches typed out. Given by Presidents Kennedy, Reagan and Obama, they all deal with faith. Those three speeches alone were enough to make me happy with this book.

Inside, Mansfield covers the whole spectrum of history from Jefferson to Obama and how they interacted with the political landscape and explaining, or not, their faith.

While not pushing for any one religion, Mansfield thinks it's in our best interest to know what's going on inside our candidates because of the fact that their faith or lack thereof strongly influences their decision-making and leadership skills.

I think this is a great book for anyone interested in politics at any level of excitement. It spells out the importance of knowing more than simply their policy agendas but to know as much as we can about the person. And Mansfield goes out of his way to explain that it's the people's responsibility to get that information and not the role of government.

He uses other candidates as examples - both positive and negative - in how not to explain faith and how it can be so tricky. He talks about Gov. Romney's failure to tie his religion to the movement in America, he talks about Secretary Clinton's failure to connect on a spiritual level even though she talks quite a bit about her faith and church.

This is a great book. It was provided for review, at no cost, by BakerBooks.