QUOTE: Matthew Yglesias:
"I'm seeing a discussion on The Chris Matthews Show of the whole Dean/religion thing, and I'm left wondering how religious all these folks impugning Dean's religiosity are. It's not that a person needs to be devout in order to make observations about the politics of religion, but on the other hand it's hard to make assertions about what religious people are looking for in a candidate if you aren't one and don't know any. Certainly I don't know many observant people, so I think it behooves me to tread with caution in this area. Is Chris Matthews a regular church-goers? Tucker Carlson? David Gregory? Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think that they are. And yet -- that's the panel."
This is only true if you think that what religion is about is questions of theology, where regular church-goers would naturally have an advantage. If you're talking about religion in politics as a shortcut signal to a set of values or behaviors, then anyone with an understanding of politics could probably make a good guess at what religious people are looking for.
"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."
-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the Nazis
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