As a pastor and church leader I make it a point to see that my church never endorses candidates or takes partisan sides in elections. We certainly encourage our people to vote and participate in the political process, but we never tell anyone WHO to vote for.
I wanted to make that clear, so that what I say next is clearly understood to be my personal view as a citizen, completely apart from my role as a pastor. If ever Hawaii needed to wake up and be sure we elect the right person as our next Governor, that time is NOW. There are three major front-runners in the race… Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, former U.S. Representative Neil Abercrombie, and Lt. Governor James “Duke” Aiona.I like Mufi, generally. He is smart, often church-friendly, and — other than being a Democrat — is someone I could find marginally acceptable. He is tap-dancing around the issue of same-sex marriage a bit. Mufi is LDS (Mormon) and the LDS church has been very active in the fight against legalizing and legitimizing same-sex marriage, but Mufi has yet to come out with a strong traditional marriage only position for fear of alienating his Democrat voter base.
Neil? Mr. Abercrombie is your basic classic, ACLU 60s radical leftwing liberal. He lists his religious preference as Non-denominational Protestant, but every position he takes on matters of morality is the opposite of my own, so I am not quite sure what brand of protestantism he means. I think I’d prefer almost anyone over Neil for Governor, but he is a frontrunner. The Democratic Party has anointed him as their choice and he is getting the endorsements of the usual suspects. Thanks, but no thanks.
Which brings us to Duke. Lt. Governor Aiona is a born-again Catholic believer. Of the three major candidates he is the only one who is decisively on the side of righteousness in the matter of same-sex marriage. I have personal confidence that he will push for a public referendum on the issue over further legislative action, and — if the legislature does take the matter up again — he would certainly veto it.
For that reason, among others, I will be voting for Duke Aiona for Governor of Hawaii and hope all my friends will do the same.