But instead of engaging this issue, liberals have been drawn, helpless and mesmerized--like beetles to the vivid, blue paradise of the bug zapper--toward criticizing Sarah Palin's religion. Palin's former Pentecostal church is called a "shout-and-holler tabernacle." Reporters press Palin's former pastor to reveal if she has ever spoken in tongues, the way it was once asked if candidates had ever used drugs.

Palin's beliefs are compared to those of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright--though it turns out that she was caught on tape requesting prayers for the success of her country instead of railing against it. In that sense, Palin sounds most like President Franklin Roosevelt, who prayed on D-Day that "by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph."

And, of course, Palin is portrayed as a "theocrat"--a Muslim fundamentalist in lipstick. She has a "right to her religious beliefs" in precisely the same sense that one has a right to believe the moon is made of Muenster, but she must not be allowed to "impose" such beliefs on others.

There are serious responses to such silliness. If religious beliefs about the dignity of human life were illegitimate as a basis for public policy, there would have been no abolition or civil-rights movement. The idea of a divine image found in every human being is one of the main foundations for the American tradition of liberty, tolerance, and pluralism. Religious duty motivates millions to love and serve their neighbors--and thus to respect their neighbor's rights of conscience.