[Maryjane]

The United States remains a relatively religious country, and, as a result, religious influences maintain a presence in election campaigns regardless of whether or not a "high wall" of separation between church and state prevails. However, because "off-year" elections tend to be more local affairs, religion tends to play a somewhat more muted, and geographically dispersed, influence in congressional elections than in presidential elections. Nevertheless, there are several ways in which religion will likely serve to shape and color the outcomes of the forthcoming election. For many American voters, religion influences both the political agenda they embrace and the particular stand they adopt on various policy positions. All laws impose someone's values on the rest of society, because they specify either directly or indirectly that certain forms of behavior are preferred and enforced over other forms. While not all values necessarily derive from religion, religion frequently serves as the basis of value formation for many Americans. Thus, both the political agenda and the policy stands that many Americans adopt (e.g., on issues related to abortion, gay rights, and capital punishment) may have a religious basis.

That morality issue again. The belief that you can't have it without being religious.

Religion and Politics in the 2006 Election