There is little reason to expect any linkage between the religious beliefs publicly professed by a president and the actual practice of morality.

While religion entails public rituals, the real impact of belief is personal and private. In a secular democracy, presidential decisions are influenced by so many factors that it should be virtually impossible to tell when or if a policy is motivated by belief. That is as it should be. It says more about the voting public than about presidential candidates when religious belief becomes a test for office.

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Because Judaism has weathered so many storms and waves of oppression in the past, I cannot think of an American future without Jews. Rather than measure the vitality of the religion by the numbers of its synagogues, the demographics of its membership or the training of clergy, however, I think would judge its endurance with more subtle measures: tribal togetherness and popular religiosity.

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If attitudes of pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth become normal and socially acceptable, they are more deadly than when found scattered among individuals.

One of the contributions to modern religion came from Latin America’s Theology of Liberation. In addition to traditional views of sin as committed by individuals, Liberation Theology added the concept of “structural sin.” The idea is that the social climate fosters sinful attitudes as normal behavior. It can be found in the biblical passages about “having eyes but seeing not” and in St. Paul’s frequent denunciations of “the present age.” It need not sound religious. Take, for instance, the common dictum: “It’s a dog-eat-dog world.” Acceptance of this sentiment makes it OK to be mean and vindictive in the “real world.” Another slogan to the same effect is: “Nice guys finish last.” Verbum satis sapientibus.

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