It will be tough to argue that faith won’t play a significant role in today’s Republican primary, at least in our corner of the state.

Ilan Ziv, an Israeli filming the political documentary, “Faith-Politics The Movie,” has chosen Anderson to hold a “community conversation” about the religious motivations of voters, and Christians in particular. (I am delighted to be the master of ceremonies for the event, set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in ballroom A of the Civic Center of Anderson.)

Although the place of God in American life is a perennial issue, it has more charge this election year with the Republican candidacy of Mike Huckabee, a pastor-turned-politician who is the embodiment of the evangelical right’s three-decade battle for more influence in government.

As a former secularist, I used to worry about how much real Christian faith is behind such bids for earthly “power,” and I used to wonder whether it wasn’t just a moralistic (and self-righteous) veneer intended to promote a partisan political agenda.

As a Christ follower now, I still do.

How does any Christian explain the Rev. Pat Robertson’s support for Rudolph Guiliani, who appears to stand for much that Mr. Robertson’s opposed?

But I’m also bothered that a sincere and faithful Huckabee candidacy could be derailed by spurious fears of a “theocracy.”

Certainly, an ordained president raises the bar, but I suspect that a good many presidents and the members of their administrations have held Christian convictions every bit as deep, and our nation’s Constitutional fabric remains strong.

For some Christians, there might be a countervailing fear that a Huckabee presidency will create the peril of having Christianity judged according to his actions or inactions.

But that’s a canard, too. Every believer finds himself speaking for God, and the reputation of Christ is harmed more by believers’ collective hypocrisies than the failures of one man.

What fascinates me most about the still-marginal chance of a Huckabee presidency is that it will represent the apogee of Christian political activism.

Once in office, he could finally satisfy his Christian base with victories on abortion and marriage policy, finally freeing them — and the nation — to move onto a broader political agenda.

Or he could surprise “political Christians” by insisting that his administration apply the truth of the full Gospel narrative, on such things as third-world poverty, and shock those who like to dismiss Christianity as divisive.

Or he could incense our nation’s secular sensibilities and fail the Christian base in a way that will end Christian political activism for a generation, freeing it to focus on spreading the word of God.

Whatever happens, I know it will be for the best.

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