REPORTING RELIGION <i> edited by Benjamin Hubbard (Polebridge Press, 19678 8th St. E, Sonoma, Calif. 95476: $17.95; 194 pp.) </i>

While religion reporting was a matter of course in the 19th Century, when Main Street USA was overwhelmingly white, male and Protestant, it has been conveniently buried in black-bordered sections next to the obituaries since the arrival of blacks, Catholics and Europeans complicated the picture in the early 20th Century. Arguing that it seems odd for religion to be “as sacrosanct a subject as sex” in a country as faithful as America, the 12 reporters and professors who contribute to these pages make a lively case for extending religion coverage well beyond Jim and Tammy Faye. Most impressive is Prof. Benjamin Hubbard of Cal State Fullerton, who points out that political leaders’ beliefs need to be treated as “news” because they often affect their decisions fundamentally: Jimmy Carter’s faith led him toward peace at Camp David, for example, while Ronald Reagan’s led him, arguably, toward war: Interpreting Ezekiel to mean that “the enemies of God’s people (will be) destroyed by nuclear weapons,” Reagan told his friend James Mills that “it can’t be long now . . . until Armageddon and the second coming of Christ.”

Taking up Hubbard’s advice will be no mean feat, however, for he does not suggest how reporters can finagle their way past politicians’ media handlers, who surely will caution their bosses against revealing any convictions that might alienate a lucrative segment of voters, and newspaper editors, many of whom frown on news reporting that aspires to analyze the reasoning or faith behind political leaders’ decisions.