OnTheIssues interviews with presidential candidates: on Principles & Values

Paul Adams: Celebrate various religious feast days at national level

A: America was born under the auspices of Judeo-Christian principles. The national anthem alludes to God and heaven. Our pledge of allegiance speaks of God. I am opposed to prayers in public schools, There should be a clear separation between the public good and individual religious leanings. The First amendment guarantees us the Freedom to worship as we see fit. I believe in equal billing, no matter if one believes in Krishna, Buddha, or Jesus. People who seek to foster their religion in their children should enroll their children in private schools. I am for celebrating various religious feast days at a national level to give us a sense of cohesion.

Marc Allan Feldman: No government prohibition on religion, including publicly

A: Support. I see God in all creation and in all caring and just human relationships. We could not get God out of the public sphere, even if we wanted to. Our Constitution provides no government establishment of religion, nor prohibition of the free exercise thereof.

Mark Stewart: A creche displayed at City Hall should not offend

A: True tolerance says we should not stifle devout people who want to express their devotion to God or attempt to glorify God. Private displays on public grounds are not offensive; towns and states should let displays go forward. A creche or a menorah displayed for a month in city hall is in no means an attempt to establish religion. That's what the First Amendment proscribes, but even our most active zealots are nowhere near doing that.I am a Jew who is proudly attending Christmas tree lighting ceremonies. I believe the Ten Commandments should be taught in middle school, at least as part of "Civics". If a school is going to teach sex ed, its students should know the 7th, 8th and 9th Commandments.

Mark Stewart: The Resistance: warriors for better democracy

If I make it to the White House it's because Americans see in me a warrior for better democracy. So my priority is to keep the people vigilant. I will point out where congress and bureaucrats and regulators are trying to dis-serve American interests. I will use the VETO power to assure this.

I will cultivate new candidates for Congress and State House sets through The Resistance (www.weResist.us), the organization I founded to help grass-roots candidates.

And I will work to WAGE PEACE, letting American students, firms, families and orgs suffuse the receptive world to American goodness.

Jim Hedges: Talking about God is ok personally, but not officially

A: as personal witness, not as official policy

Jill Stein: Moral foundation for society good; religious basis bad

Stein: We don't live in a religious country--in the sense of having no national religion, and instead the separation of church & state--so faith should not be a public issue. But, yes, it tends to be something that people are interested in. I'm not comfortable with any narrow religious or secular view of the world. Religious societies where religion is enshrined in government are extremely problematic. I respect every faith and look for a moral and ethical foundation of how society works--but that is independent of faith or whether one has a religion at all. And that needs to be reflected in our government. Failing to separate church and state is a bad prescription.

Jill Stein: Raised Jewish; married to a Protestant atheist

Stein: I was brought up in a reform Jewish family--where the key [aspects of faith] are community and social responsibility--I did not come away with a sense of "Jewish right & wrong" that is different from "right & wrong" period. My husband was brought up Protestant but is a practicing atheist--I bring that perspective of religious neutrality--we need to be a diverse society--that's just a condition of the modern world.

Robert Steele: Two-party bi-opoly sacrifices integrity for power

• INTEGRITY is the core value and means more than honor--it demands intelligence and a holistic approach to all issues, integrating clarity and diversity to achieve sustainable outcomes
• We the People are the sole arbiters of what constitutes good policy
• No one party, no one faction, can claim to be superior to any other--it takes ALL of us together
• Federal government and state governments are out of control and irresponsible primarily because the two-party bi-opoly sacrificed its integrity in the pursuit of power and especially the power of the purse,--borrowing a trillion dollars a year "in our name" is in my view an impeachable offense, as is the failure to protect pension funds
• There is nothing wrong with the USA that cannot be fixed quickly by restoring the integrity of our electoral system and hence of our government: the Electoral Reform Act of 2012 does that.

Brian Moore: Abolition all forms of domination and exploitation