Godless Election?

Going Godless -- now there's an idea. Timothy Egan writes in an op-ed piece for the NY Times, that America's political scene might benefit if we banned god-talk from the rest of this year's political process. He looks fondly back at John Kennedy's remarks about keeping religion private.

I'm sympathetic to the cause, even if I'm not on board with him. I think that both major party nominees would be willing to forgo God talk after recent bouts with difficult pastors. In fact, the mixture of religion and politics has become at times toxic and at others simply distracting. We have bishops calling out Catholic politicians on taking the Eucharist -- that is Democratic politicians who either are pro-choice or uphold such laws. Now, I appreciate the Catholic right to enforce it's positions, but if they're going to call out people like Kathleen Sebelius on abortion issues, then let's see equal time given on other Catholic imperatives -- like the death penalty.

Egan has a point about the damage done to the public square by overzealous attempts to insert religion into the conversation. And evangelical pastors Egan lifts up -- Rick Warren and Joel Osteen -- may have good reasons for distancing themselves from politics. But can we completely separate faith and politics?