While the Reverend Lynn wisely pulls back from this position, Annie Laurie Gaylor embraces it enthusiastically. I am not sure whether she wants to deny the right to be religious in public only to politicians, or to all citizens. In the first case, the state would impose on candidates for office a test that they be publicly nonreligious. The second case would deny the right of each American to practice his faith, amounting to the establishment of public secularism. Neither position is orthodox church-state separationism.
American government is representative government.
Rather, we grant them the authority to act on our behalf in political deliberations. He can even switch parties without forfeiting his office. I am sure that on numerous issues the Reverend Lynn and Ms. Gaylor would want Sen. Lieberman to vote on principle against the wishes of his constituents. One thread of this discussion has been the atheist who subscribes to traditional morality. This prompts the question of whether an atheist who adheres to these morals is just going along with the religious-based morality of the culture, or whether he has an independent atheistic basis for his moral principles.