I'm not a United States Citizen but I stumbled upon your site and took a moment to read your article entitled:

"Why Journalists Get Religion Wrong; It ain't easy covering the God beat".

In it you refer to the American people as desirous of or, in need of, insight into the religious beliefs of their electoral candidates to guide their vote. I am puzzled by this as I am familiar with your constitution and I believe that Article VI says:

"No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

If I am wrong or have misquoted I would appreciate you pointing me in the right direction. But it seems to me that if this truly is a part of your constitution then it might be that reporters are not covering the candidates religious views in depth because it would be unconstitutional to sway the vote on religious grounds.

It remains your right to cover and speak about the religious beliefs of your candidates, but if anything I think the people should be dissuaded from using a religious barometer to guide their vote. Religious beliefs tend to cloud the important issues like economic growth, scientific advancement, health care advancement, care for the poor, crime and punishment, and a myriad of other extremely important issues which always seem to be overpowered by the untouchable faith.

Religion has its place. As you say it is a great way to "get inside" the head of a candidate. In the political arena however, your founding fathers chose to keep Church and State separate, and it is my humble opinion that they made the right choice.

Thank you for your time.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Cameron
andrew.cameron@mac.com
Google: andrewDOTcameron