It's clear Allen was lying when he said faith was important to his family.

At pages 41-42 of "Fifth Quarter," Coach Allen, the father, says spontaneously: “Heck, you know what I’d like? I’d like us all to go to church someday, that’s what I’d like.” 

“Church?” Allen’s mom said.  The mother asked Jennifer, “Do you know why your father’s saying that?”  Jennifer Allen reveals that her mother believed “going to church brought bad luck.”  Reportedly she relied heavily on superstitions, having “more faith in Arabic hand gestures to ward off evil than she did in the recitation of the Lord’s prayer.”

Jennifer says she had only been to church only once, so when they actually did go her mother gave her “a continual play-by-play”:

  The procession of the priest: "Here comes the hypocrite."
  The collection plate: "Here come the vultures."
  The forgiveness of sins: "Here comes the guilt."

You know, I don’t care what faith a person has when I’m in the voting booth.  All I want to know is that they’re good people, and that they shoot straight with me.  After I read Jennifer Allen’s book about her and George’s upbringing, I can’t believe anything he says.

Quesion: Va. Progressive is reporting a Rasmussen poll with Allen up 49-46.  It now appears the poll has appeared to Rasmussen's premium members.  Is that the latest number?

I'm happy with that.  (Rather be up by 10.)  All it mean is that you need to convince 2% of the electorate to change their vote.  Given that the heavy advertising is just starting for Webb, he is in good position.

I've been seeing a lot of responses by evangelical leaders claiming that Kuo is wrong, wrong, wrong.  People like Falwell and company aren't ever going to admit they were fooled, because it is making them look like fools.  I only hope the faithful take a good, hard look at this situation and decide for themselves instead of slavishly following their leaders.

Ah, the uses of religion! Political manipulation is a time-honored tactic: the Tsars and the New Rome of the Orthodox Christians; Justinian; forced conversions when a King decides which version of which religion he will promote to solidify his own control of the populace; the conflation of Confucian doctrine with the just state;  there is no shortage of examples.

Sometimes the religioous organization bites the hand that feeds it, trying to place itself above the secular leader, claiming the priests are closer to God. Frankly, I believe that any religious group which is simultaneously so unsure of itelf yet greedy for power that it ties itself to the political leadership, becoming the established religion, deserves to be used... and will be, to its own detriment.

Separation of Church and State is one of America's greatest contributions to political theory. That Bush and Rove have attempted to degrade this is one more reason to abhor them.

Kuo will be discussing his book on "60 Minutes" tomorrow evening. Here's the show's preview of that segment (from here):

A LOSS OF FAITH – Evangelical Christian David Kuo went to work in the Bush Administration with the idea that religion and government could work together. But he [Kuo] left his post disillusioned because he says religious leaders have been manipulated and corrupted for political gain. Lesley Stahl reports. Richard Bonin is the producer.

left his post of his own volition, which gives him more credibility than he'd have had he been fired. Still, people like Dobson are already labelling him as "sour grapes loser" and those who liten to Dobson ae likely to accept that label. Saves them having to read the book and make their own minds on the issue...