I’ve been trying to figure out for a while which Democratic candidate has the best views on church-state separation. A recent article in The Washington Post is probably about as much help as we’ll get. (A Spiritual Struggle for Democrats) Leiberman is the worst, with Reverend Al a close second. The rest are all walking a tightrope. Given that 41 percent of respondents in a recent poll think that “There has been too little reference to religious faith and prayer by politicians”, it would border on political suicide to be a forthright defender of the great wall of separation. So the Democrats generally fall all over themselves to show that they are good, god-fearing folks, but insist that they will not let their beliefs guide their leadership. John Edwards, for example, has been very religious since the death of his son in a car accident, but says: “Most people in this country do not want you to be beating them over their heads with your religious views”. Dick Gephardt is a Baptist who almost went to seminary, but says the bible is a “different set of teachings some in the more fundamentalist parts talk about”. General Clark just says that making the religious connection to people is very important. He recently did an interview with Beliefnet, from which I got the sense that the military is his real religion. He makes a big deal about his Christianity, but he has moved around frequently between Christian denominations — he can’t even decide if he’s a Catholic or a Protestant. I don’t see much conviction there.

Based only on the Post article, it seems like Kerry and Dean are our best bets. The article noted that Kerry is a Catholic but quoted him criticizing Bush’s attack on church-state separation: “The faith-based initiative crossed that line overtly”. Dean is sure to make it known that he reads the bible each day, but he is fond of saying that “We’ve got to stop voting on guns, gods, gays and school prayer” and the article says that he “has started spreading a secular political message at black churches after singing and swaying along with gospel choirs and praying with mostly black congregations”.

So nobody’s a hero here, but Dean, Kerry, Gephardt, Edwards, and Clark all seem like they would be considerable improvements over our Holy American Emperor.