Campaign 08's "God-o-Meter" (at last?!)
It’s very time-consuming to follow all the news about candidates and religion in the 2008 Presidential election. Every day brings scores of new stories. Like me, you may have been thinking, “if only someone could digest all these reports for me, analyze them, and present them in a pseudo-scientific mathematical model.” Well, I have good news to report!
The indispensable website Beliefnet has produced a “God-o-Meter” which, in their words “scientifically measures factors such as rate of God-talk, effectiveness—saying God wants a capital gains tax cut doesn't guarantee a high rating—and other top-secret criteria.” Although the language they use is tongue-in-cheek (I hope!), the effort is a serious one. It is edited by Dan Gilgoff, Beliefnet's Politics Editor. A former political correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, he is author of The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War. The official criteria for candidates’ God-o-Meter ranking can be read here.
If nothing else, the site provides links to a rich array of interesting stories, many of which I had not seen elsewhere.