From the time that I was a little boy in Memphis, church and faith have always been central to who I am as a person.  So I am sometimes bewildered when parents tell me they cannot get their children to go to church or attend Sunday school.  I confess that I did not realize children had those choices.

Growing up, we had a simple rule in my house:  if you woke up on Sunday, you went to church.  Even my friends who spent Saturday night with us would have to go to church.  Christian, Jewish or Muslim, it did not matter; my parents took them all to Sunday service.

Like many children, my faith was a matter of obligation.  I learned about God the old-fashioned way:  I was forced to.  But as I grew into a man, my faith evolved into something much more complicated and, at the same time, much more important.  Now when I wake up in the morning, the question is no longer what I have to do; now, the questions are what do I believe, what do I stand for, and what will I do to put those beliefs into action?

In many ways, my faith and my belief in service are the enduring legacy of my grandmother.  As much as anyone, she was the person who taught me right from wrong.  Whether through a kind word or a flick of her switch, she taught me what to do and, just as important, what not to do.  We also learned at an early age the importance of the call to serve.  We took to heart the command in the letter of James that it is not enough to say you have faith.  You must also put this faith into action, for James is correct when he warns us that “faith without works is dead.”

This desire to serve and to put my faith and beliefs into action is why I ran for Congress and why I have been privileged to represent the people of Memphis in Washington for the last nine years.  It is also why I am running for Senate to represent the state of Tennessee.  I want to help make the lives of all Tennesseans better.

I believe that my faith mirrors the principles on which our nation was founded: equality, dignity, tolerance and freedom.  These ideas formed the bedrock on which the founding fathers based their claim to independence, and these are the same lessons that Jesus preaches in the Gospel.  The separation of church and state is not an order for lawmakers to ignore their faith or to banish their values.  Instead, it is a command for tolerance, to recognize that not all of us share the same beliefs or worship the same god and to respect those differences.

And so, I will continue to be guided by my faith in the Senate.  I will continue, as the Reverend Jim Wallis has eloquently stated, to follow my personal ethics to promote social justice:

• I will continue to work to improve the lot of the least among us because I believe that economic security, access to healthcare, and educational opportunity for all are moral imperatives.

 

• I will continue to promote personal responsibility and strong moral values, including the teaching of character education in all of our schools.

 

• I will continue to be pro-family, including supporting a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, without taking away the civil rights of gays and lesbians.

 

• I will continue to work to eliminate abortions in our country without criminalizing what is undoubtedly one of the most tormenting and difficult decisions a woman will ever have to make.

Faith inspires so many to do so much.  That is why I am proud to serve as chair of the Community Solutions and Initiatives Caucus in Congress, which is a group of lawmakers dedicated to finding ways to help community and church groups who want to improve the lives of their members through solutions that work, not the polarization of ideology.

The challenges facing our state and our nation–domestic security, economic independence, health care and educational opportunity–demand leaders who can look past our differences and devise solutions.

We can all do better if we are willing to work together.  We must confront the future not with fear or demagoguery, but with courage and unity.  Our faith in our God–and in each other–requires nothing less.