Read the Constitution, not the Bible

"Faith adopts key role in 2008 campaign." This article bothers me. It bothers me a lot. (Click here to read it on Yahoo!.) Why, in any way, does it matter what a candidate's religious beliefs are? And how is it anyone's business? Even more importantly to me, a pagan: why is this information crucial to electing a president?
I find that I rather respect those who keep that information to themselves, preferring to not use it as a way to gain voters. Of course, in this day and age, using religion to gain votes is the way of it. Our current president certainly did that when citing Jesus Christ as his favorite philosopher. And sadly, the current crop of presidential wannabes are following in those footsteps, hiring strategists to help them reach religious voters.
I'm going to pull out and post a couple of the more irritating paragraphs in the piece, and not take the time to put them in context.
* Democrats in general are targeting moderate Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants and even evangelicals, hoping to enlist enough voters for whom religious and moral issues are a priority to put together a winning coalition.
* Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has been questioned so much about his Mormon faith — 46 percent of those polled by Gallup in March had a negative opinion of the religion — that he has taken to emphasizing that he is running for a secular office. [Editor's note: Good for him!]
* Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Catholic who says he gave serious consideration as a young man to becoming a priest, is fending off critics who say he should be denied the sacrament of communion because he supports abortion rights.
* Religion has become such a common element of presidential politics that during the first televised debate among the 2008 Republican candidates, a reporter asked if any did not believe in evolution — three Republicans raised their hands: Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo. [Editor's note: These guys are just stupid, actually. Does science and the actual physical evidence of evolution mean nothing?]
I remember hearing that there was a big to-do about Kennedy's being Catholic, and the people of the country being concerned about how often the Pope would be consulted on American issues. What happened to those savvy voters and countrymen?
Now it's all, "I read the Bible about everything! ... I am a vessel of God! ... I pray before I make any decision! ... I can't wait to get into that office and hang a crucifix! ... I am all about preaching the word of a prophet who says that he talked to God, had no proof of anything, and wrote it down for a significant portion of the planet's population to blindly follow!"
This kind of thing just chaps me. These people don't even respect: a.) actual knowledge and science (such as the aforementioned evolutionary argument), b.) a person's right to choose how to conduct themselves (Catholics in regards to abortion, and this is on both sides of the party system), and/or c.) someone's decision to separate church and state (a hot-button issue for me, obviously). I hate that someone like that has been president, is president, and probably will be president.