By Matthew Streib
Religion News Service
Saturday, February 16, 2008

He walked on water; he turned water to wine; and now he wants to be your candidate for president.

That's right, it's Jesus, ready to lead the free world after President Bush leaves the White House next year. There's only one hitch: He doesn't have a platform. Or, for that matter, a running mate.

Jesus's would-be political goals are up for a vote on a new Web site launched last month, http://www.JesusIn2008.com. A sort of nominating convention, the site invites participants to infer his stances on modern politics and choose a contemporary running mate, using the results as a voting guide in November.

All of the real presidential candidates have all been floated as possible vice presidents, and delegates are parsing Jesus's positions on health care (suspicious of HMOs), the environment (pro-conservation) and church-state separation ("Does Jesus have to recuse himself on this one?" one person asked).

"I'm probably not alone in feeling that somehow we are not getting the best possible candidates for president or the best possible process," said Stephen Heffner, the site's creator. A former newspaper reporter and a nonpracticing Catholic, Heffner said Jesus is the kind of revolutionary that this country needs.

"My sense is that if Jesus were here, he would do the right thing, without needing a political strategist giving him what he thinks people want to hear," he said.

Even though it's about Jesus, the site attempts to be nonreligious. If Jesus were to use miracles to solve the energy crisis or fund Social Security, debate about policy would be pointless.

The Jesus running in 2008 is not divine, Heffner said, but rather "Jesus the man, the revolutionary individual who comes to us through history as a model for ethical and moral human behavior."

Heffner said the debate should be intellectual and pragmatic, tempered with examples from the Bible, not an exchange of dogma. There are only three rules on the site: no miracles, no preaching, no rude behavior.

The Rev. Jim Wallis, the progressive evangelical who founded Sojourners/Call to Renewal and author of "The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post-Religious Right America," said Christian values can be helpful to establishing a government, but finding a candidate in Jesus's image is not a panacea.

"The ethics of Jesus will not be adopted by a nation, but they will be adopted by the followers of Jesus to shape the nation," he said. "The Sermon on the Mount would not be a political platform. Changes in society are like reforms; you make one, and then you make another."

Wallis added, however, that divining Jesus's priorities lends perspective to national issues. "Would Jesus care about 30,000 children dying worldwide from poverty every day or would he care about a gay marriage amendment in Ohio? That's a fair question."

Jacques Berlinerblau, who teaches at Georgetown University and is author of "Thumpin' It: The Use and Abuse of the Bible in Today's Presidential Politics," said the site has the potential to become quite popular, because it reflects the influence of religion on politics.