In reviewing those four-plus decades, I found that a candidate’s declarations of faith had very little bearing on his conduct of the presidency (Jimmy Carter was something of an exception to this rule). Lyndon Johnson, for instance, had no sophisticated understanding of Christianity other than a sense (inherited from his mother) that the strong should take care of the weak. That conviction animated his pursuit of the Great Society; it also, tragically, played into the prosecution of the war in Vietnam. Ronald Reagan, on the other hand, claimed that his opposition to abortion was the overriding moral issue of his time (despite the fact that he had signed a bill legalizing abortion while he was governor of California). Yet, as president, he made no real attempt to outlaw abortion, as he had promised, and the issue doesn’t appear even once in his 700-plus-page autobiography.

So, yes, it’s fine to ask about a candidate’s religious convictions, but let’s pay attention to the answers. Suppose, for instance, that when Bush declared that Jesus was his favorite philosopher, someone had asked a follow-up question. “Mr. Bush, Jesus told his followers to be peacemakers and invited them to love their enemies. How would those principles guide your foreign policy, especially in the event of, say, a foreign attack on the United States?” Or: “Mr. Bush, Jesus, your favorite philosopher, expressed concern for the tiniest sparrow. How will that sentiment shape your environmental policies?”

If only . . .