Does religion have a place in the presidential race?

On a Christian radio station, I recently heard presidential candidates Obama and McCain are scheduled for back-to-back interviews about their religious faith later this month.

Unfortunately, I could not find anything about this on Google so I can’t share any details.

But the blurb I heard prompted some thoughts about religion and the presidential race.

It seems like the little I’ve heard about faith in this race has been negative such as:

- Obama’s former minister, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, swearing and slamming America that led to
Obama’s break with the man who had been his pastor for years.

- Rev. Jesse Jackson’s embarrassing “open mike” statements about Obama that required not
one, but two apologies from Jackson. (What’s with these prominent figures forgetting they are
wired with microphones lately?)

- During the primaries Mitt Romney had to address the issue of his membership in the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church.

- E-mail grapevine messages declared Obama was secretly a Muslim, including one photo I saw
of Obama, Sen. Clinton and Sen. McCain on a stage during the national anthem – Obama
didn’t have his hand over his heart. This created the double whammy for Obama: he’s
possibly a Muslim and refuses to show patriotism, according to the e-mail.

With these incidents in mind, one can understand the reluctance on the part of the media to run articles about religion and the presidential race.

But doesn’t something as important as a candidate’s religious beliefs deserve some attention?

According to an article titled Faith in America: The Philanthropic Context by Dr. Susan Raymond (March 2006), 82% of Americans believe in God.

Have we become so accustomed to the concept of the separation of church and state that discussions of faith are regarded as taboo or "politically incorrect"?

Looking at a 16-month timeframe during the primaries, from January 2007 through April 2008, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life tracked coverage of religion. Their findings were “…despite the attention paid to Obama’s former pastor, questions about McCain’s relationship with his party’s conservative religious base, interest in Mitt Romney’s membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the surprisingly strong campaign of former Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee, only 2% of the campaign stories directly focused on religion.”

The comments on this information included the point that even when religion was covered, the stories were about the strategic campaign use of religion rather than religion itself.

For those of us for who believe faith shapes values, a candidate’s religious beliefs are of interest to a greater degree than the media’s gingerly coverage.