I hope you brought your foam finger because the opening pitch in latest Democratic presidential spat has just been thrown. As Hillary Clinton’s lead in the state of Pennsylvania dipped from insurmountable just a month ago to within the margin of error, it’s no surprise that the latest publicized bruhaha involved Barack Obama. Speaking about citizen response to job hemorrhaging in the primary state, Obama stated “It’s not surprising when they get bitter. They cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.” Oh, boy, he said the “R” word.

Obama probably would have been better off firing off the “C” word on “The View.” With this latest statement heaped onto America’s conviction that the man is a Muslim who simultaneously belongs to a Christian hothouse for black anger, Obama’s going to face an onerous battle winning back the hearts and minds of a nation who have given those organs to God and forgotten the claim check. While some will steam over Obama’s concurrent allegations that Pennsyvania harbors gun-toting xenophobes, you can bet your defaulted mortgage that he’s going to take the most flak for his attack on God.

Clinton wasted no time coming to the aid of those offended by a slight on their faith rather than a gutting of their livelihood. “People embrace faith not because they are materially poor, but because they are spiritually rich,” said Clinton during a campaign speech in Indiana. I was hoping against hope that someone in the audience would raise the specter of the “spiritually rich” Jerry Falwell, Osama Bin Laden, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and countless other contemporary crackpots or deadly hate mongers who have fleeced millions into their confidence by both possessing and playing on that wealth of spirituality. Alas, there was no such answer and Clinton’s and McCain’s crocodile smiles did their damage. Obama was forced to apologize.

Therein lies the problem. Barack Obama should not have apologized for those remarks. If anything, he should have expanded them. As when he confronted the debilitating race issue in America several weeks ago, Obama could have theoretically launched another memorable oration about the educational gulf in America. He could have developed this throwaway statement into a challenge for America to examine its own tumble into fundamentalism and how religious adherence has impeded educational aptitude and subsequent financial success, affected the level of debate in this country in which scientists take backseats to bishops, and has created a climate in which hatred and discrimination is licensed in the name of faith.

Religion’s stranglehold over American politics has reached an alarming status in the past decade for that slim minority that wants no part in it. I’m not referring to the forgiven instances of “bad apples” such as the disgusting pederasty occurring in Texas under the auspices of Mormonism. There are very real and very broad implications that religion will continue to expand in America if its citizens’ Freudian theocratic desires are left unchallenged. In a recent study compiled by Gallup, 42% of surveyed Americans contended that religious leaders should have a direct role in shaping the Constitution — a number nearly identical to those in Iran wanting their religious leaders to shape their country’s guiding document. Florida and Louisiana now require stickers on biology books warning of the “theoretical” nature of evolution. Although it is unsound to base a conclusion solely on the religious basis and ignore socioeconomic conditions in these states, it is still worthy of note that 12 of the 18 Bible Belt states appeared in the bottom 50% of state educational rankings for 2006-2007.

It’s easy to fire polemic at the much-maligned South, but religion’s pervasive hold ripples from sea to shining sea. In my own home in the D.C. metro area this weekend, I’m going to have to contend with tens of thousands of people fighting to catch a glimpse of a muttering old man in pajamas raising his hand at the new Nationals Stadium. A month after a CDC study revealed that one in four American teenage girls has a sexually-transmitted infection, droves of Catholics will be holding up “God Bless U” signs in front of a figurehead who decries the use of condoms as venial sin and perpetuates prejudice against the gay community. If that’s not, in Obama’s words, “clinging to religion” in a dangerous way, then I don’t know what is. If anything, Americans should be lining up to fire a crate of Trojan Magnums at the hermetically-sealed Popemobile in protest of the Vatican’s archaic lunacy. There are some of us who care about the health of our citizens and enshrined public institutions under attack by the medieval prescriptions of belief. THAT offends US.

If America ever wants to see a reversal of the disturbing trend of denying religion has anything to do with American decay, we have to dissolve this preposterous taboo on criticizing religious convictions in this country. If those of us who don’t subscribe to superstitious idiocy have to be content with an electorate that would sooner elect a black gay woman as president than an atheist as a House Rep, then the very least we can ask for is a moratorium on hysteria when a candidate alludes to the detriments of religious belief. Although nonbelievers have come to expect the torch-and-pitchfork response by Puritan head-patters in the media, we don’t have to tolerate the indignity of having our rationalism turned on its head by presidential candidates abandoning dialogue and meaningful challenges for placation of a religious majority.

Obama’s buckling has thrown a depressing shroud over an already darkening race. Although I have little doubt that reason in politics will take another wad of religious ejaculate on the nose in the coming week, I am aware of only one personal effect that this latest Clinton/Obama spat has produced in me. After this appalling display of genuflecting to protect America’s wounded license for superstition, the chances of either candidate receiving my vote in November took a nose dive.