Why be limited to selecting just one?

Herman Cain is the latest Republican presidential candidate to invoke God in his campaign. Earlier in the campaign, Cain claimed that God spoke to him through his granddaughter. Both Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum have also claimed that God sent them a message to run for president.  Gingrich has spoken of God’s influence in his decision to run and also noted that God forgave him for two extramarital affairs that ended marriages. Rick Perry has held prayer session and even asked that God provide rain for Texas. Even the aborted Tim Pawlenty campaign had at least one of his staffers state that God led him to the campaign.

Perhaps God is like a lobbyist who spreads contributions to all the candidates, or perhaps He has a sense of humor and can’t get enough of watching the Republican presidential candidates turn the presidential nomination into a circus.

There is an interesting sidebar to this claim for divine guidance. Besides, Ron Paul’s failure to claim a religious mission in his campaign, neither of the two Mormon candidates, Mitt Romney or Jon Huntsman, have invoked God’s blessing, at least not as publicly as the non-Mormon Christians. Perhaps God is not a Mormon or perhaps the non-Mormons, Paul excepted, are not the truthful Christians they claim to be.

From Cain, we now have further details on why God channeled through Cain’s granddaughter.

“I prayed and prayed and prayed. I’m a man of faith, I had to do a lot of praying for this one, more praying than I’d ever done before in my life. And when I finally realized that it was God saying that this is what I needed to do, I was like Moses. ‘You’ve got the wrong man, Lord. Are you sure?’”

Seriously, if Cain has to ask God “Are you sure?” then the problem might not be the message from God. God is going to make Himself clear enough that Cain doesn’t have to ask a question, especially after praying for an answer.

If God was this nebulous on choosing Moses to carry down stone tablets with the Ten Commandments on them, the people of Israel would have been confused with half-a-dozen Moseses as lawgivers. It is also a good thing that God didn’t pick several Jesuses as His son or several Muhammads to convert the Middle East. The world would be a bigger mess than it is now if leadership involved multiple choice answers.

It is disturbing that candidates must support their legitimacy by claiming the blessing of God. If they really had God’s blessing, they could just keep quiet, be good Christians, and count the votes as their divine victory becomes apparent.

Either God is a prankster by blessing multiple candidates, or this crop of Republicans has confused prayer with wishful thinking. Of course, they could just be blasphemous liars. Take your pick.