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Adlai E. Stevenson would not have fared well in the 2007 presidential primary debates, though he was perhaps the greatest American orator of the 20th century. “Religious experience is highly intimate,” the two-time presidential candidate once said, “and, for me, ready words are not at hand.” Stevenson conducted his 1952 and 1956 presidential campaigns in a different era, when most voters did not like religion and politics to share the same dais.

More than half a century later, one Republican presidential candidate, Ron Paul, has called President George W. Bush’s foreign policy “un-Christian.” Another Republican candidate, Duncan Hunter, has said that God wants a Republican to be president. The Democrat Bill Richardson would like voters to know that his sense of social justice comes from being a Roman Catholic; and Joe Biden, also a Democrat, thinks that “all the prayer in the world will not stop a hurricane.”

How is it that we know these things? Our faith is fair game in American politics today. Why? Because George W. Bush used his sincerely held religious beliefs to great effect, marshalling many of his fellow Christians to the polls in two elections in which their votes made a significant difference. The religious base of the Republican Party, though not what it once was, cannot be ignored. And Democrats hope to win the moderate to liberal faith vote captured by Bill Clinton but foolishly ignored by John Kerry.

A review of the transcripts of the 2007 Democratic and Republican debates and candidates’ forums can give any voter some idea of what presidential candidates have been saying about faith and politics. Because not everything the candidates have said about faith can be found in these transcripts, and because the same questions about faith were not asked of every candidate at every debate, this review offers a snapshot, not a portrait. But it does afford us a glimpse of what these men and one woman are thinking about faith and politics. And while the questions may no longer surprise us, the answers still might.

God and Republicans

God is no stranger in Republican politics, especially since the 1980s, when the This article appears in December 17 2007.