Faith and Politics: Should Religion Bar a Candidate from Public Office?

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Michael Kinsley is a well-known and widely respected writer, editor and television personality. In the early 1990s he was cohost of CNN's "Crossfire" program as the liberal counterpart to Pat Buchanan. He was later the founding editor of the online journal Slate, and then for a brief period the editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times. After that, he became a weekly columnist for The Washington Post and Slate, and is currently a regular commentator for TIME magazine.

Mr. Kinsley wrote a highly provocative piece for TIME's Sept. 21 issue, titled, "God as Their Running Mate," in which he argued, at least implicitly, that no person of sincere religious faith can be trusted to serve in …