Yesterday in Iowa Rudy Giuliani kept up with his practice of not talking about his religious practice:

“My religious affiliation, my religious practices and the degree to which I am a good or not so good Catholic, I prefer to leave to the priests,” Giuliani said. “That would be a much better way to discuss it. That’s a personal discussion and they have a much better sense of how good a Catholic I am or how bad a Catholic I am.”

He alone is resisting the emerging pressure to run not only for president but also for virtual “pastor-in-chief.” And more and more I find myself respecting his position. Now it would, perhaps, be a bit more noble if his answer were not also smart politics. After all, once he started talking about religion all of the other “religious” candidates would start rolling their eyes because of his “obvious” sins – all those marriages for instance.
But setting that aside, I like the move. We are talking way too much about our candidates’ religious faith. We need them to be great – or good – political leaders. We don’t need them to lead us to the mountain top or to confession. Rudy is right – let’s leave that to the priests.