Bernie Sanders was recently privileged to a brief act of “simple politeness” by the Vicar of Christ. Staying at the same Vatican City hotel that acts as Pope Francis’s private residence, Sanders was invited to be privately greeted by the pontiff and exchange a few pleasantries before Francis’s departure to meet with Syrian refugees in Greece and Sanders’s return to America’s campaign trail.

Dismissing the encounter as having nothing to do with a political endorsement, the Pope suggested that reading anything more into it was nonsensical. Perhaps, but I find it difficult to believe that if Ted Cruz had alternatively been the hotel’s guest he would have been similarly extended the same courtesy.

Sanders’s visit to Rome was no impromptu vacation from his political crusade to take on corporate greed and planetary disregard in the name of capitalism, but a direct extension of it. Sanders was there to address a conference hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences on “restoring social justice and environmental sustainability.” That the Pope’s recent revolutionary “encyclical” and Sanders political revolution perfectly dovetail within those parameters is of course why Sanders was the only presidential candidate invited. That both men are kindred spirits, one a radical Christian, one a secular Jew, trying to turn the tide of an increasingly bankrupt materialism, certainly allows a minor bending of normal protocol under the circumstances.

Much of the Pope’s politics are indeed the same as those held by Bernie Sanders. Both are steadfastly idealistic outliers committed to justice and sustainability, challenging and changing the establishment from within.

Without naming Donald Trump outright, the Pope recently stood at the U.S-Mexican border and declared that anyone advocating building walls rather than bridges was straight out not a Christian. Simple gospel truth. Look it up in the Bible. It’s there plain as day, plain as the difficulty most professed Christians have in appreciating the defining element distinguishing the New Testament, namely Christ’s directive of acceptance, forgiveness and love.

So much for some Republican candidates’ avowed Christianity on that position alone, let alone closing mosques, deporting Muslims or refusing to take in Syrian refugees displaced in part by ongoing American interventionism to facilitate a continued coveting of other nations’ energy resources.

The Old Testament is all about borders, self-righteous nationhood, and supposed divine favoritism. “God Bless America” finds deep roots there.

The New Testament is all about infinite compassion knowing no boundaries. Patriotism itself need not be a deal-breaker in following Christ’s teachings, but capitalism’s predisposed leanings and desired excesses might well have great difficulty in passing through the eye of a needle.

Hillary Clinton expresses environmental concerns and a furthering of economic justice, but the Clinton Foundation’s contributors list contains many of questionable or outright conflict with such goals. Perhaps this paradox is just an innovative doing of good works by sometimes seemingly compromised means. Questionable means and lack of transparency are an all too familiar part of the Clintons’ adoption of a Wall St. approach to achievement.

When one looks back at all they have tried to accomplish, and then their notorious lapses in acceptable morality and ethics, Bill and Hillary remain an enigma. Their political agenda always seems so well motivated towards laudable goals without suffering any doubts or remorse for what means are employed towards those ends. Their endgame takes no prisoners.

Is that the kind of leadership America should choose, and if so how will that choice inform those that govern regarding what we expect American values to represent? Is establishment politics to remain foremost about the acquisition of power as an end in itself without consideration of a moral compass in achieving that victory?

“Do as I say, not as I do.” Hypocrisy is a familiar visitor to both sides of the aisle. We tell emerging world powers to lighten their carbon footprint and forgo nuclear arms, yet make no real effort to change our own example.

Some successfully sidestep such hypocrisy. Ted Cruz asks no one to even believe in climate change and Trump advocates a nuclear arming of Japan.

Hillary Clinton, an accomplished and artful grand master of half-truths, has conspicuously failed to capture the youth vote mostly on the issue of honesty and authenticity.

Whether or not youth is indeed wasted on the young, their youthful vision often sees straight through those whom betray the supposed wisdom of age. All politicians should well know that honesty is the best policy, because then you don’t have to remember what you’ve already said. Hillary and Donald, at 68 and 69 years respectively, are well old enough to know better.

Much is made of “Honest Bernie” being only a few years their senior. Pope Francis is 79. These two old men have nevertheless miraculously channeled a devoted following among a much younger generation, those hungry for purpose and meaning serving an egalitarianism in harmony with the planet.

Being a truly Christian candidate isn’t a matter of self-proclaimed belief, no matter how heartfelt, nor certified despite how many fundamentalist endorsements are garnered, but by the values of policies promoted and the actions one lives by.

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Gary Anderson lives in Bath.