Have you heard the good news about Jesus Christ? If you're running for president, it's important to say, "Oh yes, I have, and I spend basically all my time worshiping the Baby Jesus." Never mind that your average presidential candidate has pledged his or her soul to the real god of political power, Lord Satan. But as usual, there is one "maverick" when it comes to pretending to care about Jesus, and his name is Rudy Giuliani.

According to the completely scientific "God-o-meter" at Belief.net, Rudy equals FAIL when it comes to bogus expressions of faith. On a scale of 0 (secular) to 10 (theocrat), the rat-faced fascist gets a dismal 3 rating.

Only Chris Dodd gets such a low rating, and not because he shares Rudy's love of torture, divorce, opera and abortion -- Dodd just hasn't really said anything much about God, probably because nobody has asked him, probably because nobody knows he's running for president.

Rudy is now telling us that it doesn't matter if he hates God or not, because Right-Wing Christian Evangelical Social Conservatives who vote in GOP primaries will totally understand. Why? Because it's better to just be honest about hating the crucified Lord Jesus Christ who died in large part for Rudy's endless sins!

"Maybe people of faith can respect someone who is honest with them," he told reporters. "With me, you know what you're going to get."

Yes, that will work. Born-again Republicans are especially known for their great tolerance.

As we learned yesterday, you don't even have to believe in the Christian god to score high on the God-o-Meter. Mitt Romney worships John Travolta's character from Battlefield Earth but that's close enough for many Americans.

God-o-Meter [Belief.net]

Faith In Politics [NYT Caucus]