Ballot Boxing: A WORLD view on the presidential race

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Ballot Boxing, WORLD’s weekly political roundup, offering a quick read on news, perspective, and behind-the-scenes reports from the presidential campaign trail. I’ll be less a referee and more an announcer in the coming months, as we take a ringside seat at the 2016 battle for the White House. The epic match is already underway, but here are a few ground rules before we get started:

WORLD doesn’t endorse candidates. You may see us cheering the good, criticizing the bad, and pointing out the ugly dynamics in some campaigns, but as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, we cannot tap a favorite.

We want your take: What do you think about the race? What do you want to know more about? Let us know in the comments section below, or email me at jdean@wng.org. We won’t be able to follow every lead or respond to every suggestion, but we’ll keep them in mind as we report.

Keep it in perspective: The outcome of 2016 presidential contest has serious implications for our country (and our place in it), but we can also enjoy the process, thanking God for the freedoms we still enjoy, and trusting His providence for whatever He brings. (See Question 27 of the Heidelberg Catechism for a stirring definition of God’s providence as His “almighty and everywhere present power.”)

With those rules in mind, let’s jump into this week’s roundup:

The week’s big news came as Scott Walker dropped out of the GOP presidential race. The Wisconsin governor finalized his decision after attending church on Sunday, and he said the Bible is “full of stories about people who were called to be leaders in unusual ways.” Walker said he would lead by bowing out, and he called on other lower-tier candidates to follow. His blunt reason: Erode Donald Trump’s front-runner status in a crowded field.

The Walker collapse came less than two weeks after Texas Gov. Rick Perry folded his own presidential cards. Perry told supporters: “When I gave my life to Christ, I said, ‘Your ways are great­er than my ways. Your will su­per­i­or to mine.’ Today I sub­mit that His will re­mains a mys­tery, but some things have be­come clear.”

Meanwhile, some GOP candidates criticized fellow Republican Ben Carson’s comments on the prospect of a Muslim president. The former neurosurgeon told a reporter on Sunday: “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation.” Carson, who said Sharia law isn’t consistent with the U.S. Constitution, later clarified he thought a Muslim could serve as president if he “publicly rejected all the tenets of Sharia law and lived a life consistent with that.”

Other Republican candidates noted the Constitution doesn’t allow a religious test for holding office, and the controversial Islamic group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on Carson to drop out of the race.

Carson seemed unfazed. On Wednesday, he told Fox News that donations had poured into his campaign since his original remarks two days earlier.

Speaking of Ben Carson, I recently snagged a few minutes with the candidate during a car ride between campaign stops in Aiken, S.C. We sat in the captain chairs of a black SUV, as Carson talked about his quiet rise to a top spot in the crowded GOP field. I counted three times Carson quoted the book of Proverbs in the 16-minute ride. More on that conversation in the current issue of WORLD Magazine.

Carson now shares the top tier with another rising candidate: A CNN poll showed former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina 1 point ahead of Carson after her commanding debate performance last week. The poll also showed Trump still in the lead, but just 9 points ahead of Fiorina and Carson.

Fiorina also surged in WORLD’s third evangelical insiders’ survey, fresh out this morning. Our monthly survey of 103 evangelical leaders and insiders showed Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida still holds a commanding lead among participants, but Fiorina more than doubled her first-choice votes since last month.

Fiorina is in the middle of a victory lap in South Carolina this week, including a stop today at a pregnancy care center in Spartanburg. But evangelicals sizing up candidates at this weekend’s Values Voters Summit in Washington, D.C., won’t see her there. As of today, Fiorina’s schedule indicates she’ll be campaigning in Iowa.

Trump originally declined an invitation to the Values Voters event, but after a lackluster debate performance last week, he’s now in the lineup. He’ll join seven other GOP candidates, including Rubio.

Speaking of evangelicals, last week I wrote about Sen. Bernie Sanders’ visit to the evangelical Liberty University. Sanders, an Independent senator from Vermont, has a lead in polls in some states over Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

Sanders and Liberty students exchanged creeds during the morning convocation last Monday. Liberty students sang: “I believe in God the Father …” before Sanders took the stage and declared, “I believe in gay rights.”

But the discourse remained civil, as Liberty students listened quietly, and a small contingent of outside Sanders supporters cheered. I’m still thinking about that encounter, and hoping the vibrant faith of Christian students made an impression on Sanders, a passionate man, but a socialist and a secular Jew looking to government as a Messiah.

Many predict the Sanders/Trump bubbles will soon burst, but we’d still be unwise to miss what those bubbles tell us about an American public hungry for truth, even when they’re often unsure what the truth might be.