Why are presidents allowed to have spiritual advisers? The Chattanooga Times Free Press published an explainer about the constitutionality of spiritual advisers. The story quotes CRCC Executive Director Brie Loskota about the role that such advisers play. Loskota, who helps build partnerships between government and faith communities through CRCC, said spiritual advisors need to offer advice without being partisan.
“[Advisers] do best when out of their particular faith traditions they can argue for good moral policies or policies that are values-based that may come out of a particular faith but are not simply a reflection of something that is parochial or preferential to a certain group,” Loskota said.
While the advisers are often close to the politicians, and need to be in order to be effective counselors, they must be willing to hold politicians accountable to the ideals political leaders often use while running for office or pushing for legislation, she said.
“When religious leaders get involved in [politics] and they don’t hold political leaders accountable, it creates an undermining of their moral authority because it makes it look like they’re just in it for a political win or a loss,” Loskota said.
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