Opinion: Creationists on the campaign trail?

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“Hatred of Christians Leaves LA Times Nowhere to Turn in ‘08” blares Christian blogger Mike Green, who seems to think that you can’t criticize a “creation museum,” as The Times did, without hating Christians.

Green takes comfort in the fact that “with all three of the Democrats candidates having an abiding belief and faith in an invisible God, and all three of the top Republican candidates joining them in that belief, it appears that the LA Times...is devoid of a single legitimate religion-free candidate to endorse.”

It’s news to me that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John Edwards is a creationist—though all three would probably be happy to press the specially created flesh of patrons at the creation museum. But it is significant that the top-tier Democrats agreed to participate in an event sponsored by the Sojourners/Call to Renewal evangelical organization, a pillar of the Christian left (yes, there is such a thing).

Their various testimonies about the role of religion in their lives contrasted with the perceived pallidness of the faith of Howard Dean, the fleeting front-runner in the 2004 Democratic presidential race. (Dean might have done better if, instead of screaming on the night of the Iowa caucuses he had spoken in tongues.)

So, yes, those seeking a “religion-free candidate” in ’08—a group in which I would not include The Times editorial board—must contend with pretty slim pickins’. But when was it otherwise? Even Howard Dean was a churchgoer (he switched from Episcopalianism to Congregationalism because of a controversy over a bike path).

Article VI of the U.S. Constitution says that ‘no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States,’ though many votersdon’t see it that way and neither do most aspirants for public office. But God-fearing candidates are not automatically creationists, even if a lot of the electorate may be.