This thread seems to have wandered an awfully long way from politics. Which is fair enough, because thread drift can make for great discussions.

But trying to pin down religious beliefs as such in some political slot on a political spectrum is basically fallacious.

There is a relationship between religious belief and politics, but it's a lot more complicated than that. When religion comes together with politics it provides a different kind of motivation and energy. The word "enthusiam" is another that is built on the Greek word for God. But that can intersection can come at just about any political place. Pope Francis describing unfettered capitalism as "dung" isn't feeding into the same political place as the kind of religion that sees making lots of money as evidence of God's Favour.