You can't spend a few minutes with LaVar Christensen, talking about politics and government, without the Draper Republican bringing up the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

He quickly goes on to the guiding principles found in the nature of man and nature's God.

Here is a guy who has drenched himself in the waters of "founding principles" and the "living history" of America.

But that's only part of the 53-year-old developer/attorney who is challenging three-term incumbent Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, to represent the 2nd Congressional District.

Christensen is also a highly religious man who says his LDS faith "is the center of my life" — it colors and reflects all that he does, both in his personal and political work.

Through 20 years of church lay leadership — as a bishop and member of his stake presidency — Christensen says he learned "great compassion for people," saying he loves both his Republican and Democratic colleagues in the Legislature.

"When you deal daily" with both the joys and sorrows of individuals and families, "you learn to listen, empathize and help," he says.

History, religion, faith in our Founding Fathers and life experiences, all have combined, all are reflected, in the legislation that Christensen has introduced over four sessions of the Utah Legislature, where he represents the residents of House District 48.

"Who would have ever thought that in our lifetime we'd need a (state) constitutional amendment to protect marriage between a man and a woman?" he says. "But such is our times."

Landmark legislation

While other legislators in the 2004 Legislature worked to solve the "same-sex marriage problem," Christensen realized "from my study of the (state) constitution and legal training," he says, that it would take a constitutional amendment, not a statute change, to protect traditional marriage for the long haul.

What turned out to be Amendment 3 on the ballot was passed by two-thirds of the Legislature and two-thirds of voters. It is Christensen's landmark legislation.

"If we purge all morality and religion from public life, it leads us down a dark alley," Christensen said. Such ideals are in the "founding moral and religious beliefs reflected in the Declaration of Independence.

"There are eternal truths that guide our lives and govern our decisions. Principles are everything. And politics can certainly be a distortion of principles.

"There is a supreme judge of the world. There are laws of nature, and God's natural law. They are the light that guides my path today," he says.

He next points to two bills — which also became state law — that require the teaching of civics and character in public schools.