Hillary’s religious? Whodathunkit?

David Brody over at Christian Broadcasting Network has noticed that Hillary Clinton has something to say about faith.  “As I continue to do research about her,” he says, “I find that she talks about her faith more than I originally thought.”  He then quotes her as saying the following:

People often ask me whether I’m a praying person, and I say I was lucky enough to be raised in a praying family, and learned to say my prayers as a very young child, and remembered seeing my late father by the side of his bed until his very last days saying his prayers.  So I was fortunate.  But I also say that had I not been a praying person that after I’d been in the White House for a few months, I would have become a praying person. 

It’s a definite sign of progress when anyone who works at an organization founded by Pat Robertson acknowledges the faith of Democrats.  Kudos to Mr. Brody.  However, I can’t pass along his comments without posing the question they beg: why is Hillary’s faith (or her openness about it) such a surprise?

When Democrats express their faith, they’re usually ignored, mocked as insincere, or heralded as the only Democrat since the primordial ooze to be so openly religious.  Back in February, I posted on this phenomenon and pointed out that Bill Clinton weaved faith seamlessly into his rhetoric.  Indeed, Clinton called his change agenda his “New Covenant” and extolled the virtues of a Stephen Carter book arguing that American culture trivializes religious devotion.

Today, the Democratic front-runners for the presidential nomination — Hillary, Barack Obama, and John Edwards — are religious Christians who have been faithful to their wives and never been divorced.  The front-runners for the Republican nomination — Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and, perhaps, Newt Gingrich — have never been known as the most religious bunch and have numerous divorces and infidelities to their names.

If there is a God gap between the leaders of the two major parties, I see no evidence that Democrats are on the wrong end of it.  It’s time, therefore, for America to stop saying “Gee whiz!” every time another Democrat is “outed” as religious.  We faithful Democrats have been here the whole time — sometimes more reticent than the Republicans to make political hay of our faith, but always committed to worshipping our God and living out our values.