The true believers

At the very outset of his remarks, Sen. John McCain laid down the principle: questions about the religion of a candidate for the presidency of the United States are "very legitimate." To which he added that "this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles," and therefore "I prefer someone who has a grounding in my faith." That is, a Christian president.

McCain said: "The Constitution established the Unites States of America as a Christian nation." Corrections and clarifications followed - but no apology - along with condemnations. At the forefront of the condemnations were Jewish organizations.

The Jews were angry at McCain from justified fear of the blunt mixing of religion into the affairs of state, and not for fear of McCain's attitude toward Judaism as such.

After all, in the interview he cited not only Christianity but also the "Judeo-Christian tradition," as distinct mainly from the Muslim tradition. The Pew Research Center reported that the Muslims are almost at the bottom of the scale in terms of American religious preferences.

Thus, 53 percent of those polled have a positive attitude toward "Muslim-Americans," only 43 percent have a positive attitude concerning Muslims in general, and below that looms the abyss: Only 35 percent of Americans have a good opinion of people who do not believe in God.

These are state-religion relations, American-style. In fact, it's a mirror image of the Israeli formulation: meticulous bureaucratic separation, but a strong substantive connection. Does anyone really care if Ehud Olmert believes? Or Shimon Peres? Or Benjamin Netanyahu? In Israel there are "religious parties," in America all the parties are religious. Only rarely will voters cast their ballot for a candidate whom they do not perceive as being at least "quite religious."

The 73 percent who think that Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, is such a candidate, have a positive view of him. Of those who think he is not religious, only 43 percent view him favorably. But it would be wrong to think that only the Republican Party has a religious base: 72 percent of those who think that Hillary Clinton is "quite religious" have a positive view of her, but only 22 percent of those who think she is not religious at all.

This is certainly one of the fascinating phenomena relating to the present campaign. Those who thought that the weakness of President Bush and the diminished influence of the Evangelical sector within the Republican Party reflect an erosion of the religious element in politics were wrong.

Indeed, it is arguably a more cogent element than it was in the previous elections, because now the Democratic Party has also recognized its importance. Clinton and Barack Obama are the most religious Democratic candidates, at least demonstratively, since the days of the born-again Jimmy Carter and the minister's son Walter Mondale.

The relatively recent book by Prof. Paul Kengor, "God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life," describes how Clinton visited no fewer than 27 churches in the two months preceding her election as senator in 2000.

On election day she was in six churches - "twice the number George W. Bush visited through the first three years of his presidency," Kengor writes. In the past few weeks, the Web site beliefnet.com - the site that interviewed McCain - has been featuring a "God-o-Meter." Between a grade of 0 for a "secularist" (there is no such candidate) and 10 for a "theocrat," Clinton rates a 7 and Obama an 8. That is the highest grade any Republican gets, too, namely McCain (thanks to the interview), the former Baptist minister Mike Huckabee and the former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney.

Romney is now the hot name in regard to politics and religion. He is reported to have prepared a speech that will reassure voters' fears in the face of his Mormon faith. In the U.S., the status of Mormons among public opinion is almost as poor as that of the Muslims. A Gallop Poll showed that churchgoing Protestants do not like Romney.

In any event, as the influential columnist Robert Novak noted, his situation is "vastly more complicated" than was that of John Kennedy, a Catholic, when he promised voters in September 1960 that he would not take political instructions from the Vatican. What will Romney say to the voters? Exactly the opposite of what McCain did. He will "deplore a religious test as un-American." And the beauty is that they're both right.