TIA, knowing your location helps me understand better. I currently live in the Philadelphia metroplex, but come from an area of West Michigan that is very much the same as you describe. Interesting that as a Catholic kid in a very conservative and Protestant area, I suffered at the hands of those folks as well. That is probably why I am so sensitive to the issue of tolerance. Where or whether someone prays isn't the point, is it? It is their actions. It is no crime for a public figure to base their decisions on their moral and religious convictions, so long as they made those convictions known as they sought office. I do agree with the non religious that if they make that a tenet of their seeking office, it would probably predestine their loss. I don't think that is fair, but it is what it is. Personally, when a politician wears their religion on their sleeve, it almost always precludes my vote for them.

Mick