In the leadup to the U.S. presidential election,there has been one bipartisan principle that has emerged in the general media: All religious connections of presidential and vice presidential candidates are suspect, and should be scrutinized. One should be concerned about elements of religious extremism in any candidate who is a church member. One should draw a comparison between devotion to a church and the religious devotion of Muslim extremists.

The latter point was evidenced when ABC’s Charles Gibson interviewed vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Several times he pressed her to see if her statement that the war in Iraq had a divine purpose was the same as declaring it a holy war. What to us might sound like a Christian’s prayer request sounds to much of America’s media like a call to jihad.

Of course, conservative and Christian media flew to Palin’s aid, pointing out that most of our presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, have ...