A few years ago, when we were living in a rented house on 46th street, our shower stopped working. Phoebe called the landlord, who sent a plumber to fix it. As the plumber made his way to the bathroom, he walked under two crucifixes, and passed by an icon of John the Baptist and a statuette of the Blessed Virgin in the hallway. He glanced at each of these sacramentals but said nothing. Then he examined the bathtub plumbing, and told Phoebe, “You just need a new devouter. I mean, diverter!”

If I were to be described as a devout Christian, I would take it as a compliment. And if I were to call anyone else a devout Christian, I would mean it as a compliment. But would I be — should I be? — more likely to vote for a candidate for public office, because I thought he or she was a devout Christian? Let’s go back to Michael Bates, who started it all, and see if he was right.

Bates is right about one thing: a devout faith in God will tend to impart courage and perseverance to the believer, a fearless determination to follow the right and true path, regardless of the threats or blandishments put in his way. He will walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and he will fear no evil.

And Bates is also right that if we want to choose men and women with this sort of courage for public office, it would make perfect sense to favor those with a devout faith in God.

But there’s a problem: we don’t know who has this courage-giving faith, unless and until they exhibit the courage! And obviously, by the time they do that, no other indicator of their courage is needed. Not for nothing is it written, the tree is known by its fruit.

So as a practical matter, Bates has it backwards. The observable character of a professing believer can be a guide to judging the sincerity of his belief. But a claim of devout belief cannot be taken as a guide to the character of the claimant.

And there’s another problem: this fearless determination to do what is right is not in fact a good quality per se. It is only a good quality in someone who knows what is right! Courage without wisdom is useless, or even dangerous.

Jimmy Carter, for instance, was a man whose every belief and impulse about governance was as wrong as can be. His courage, a gift of the Spirit arising from his devout faith, just made him worse! He would have served the nation much better if he had cravenly bowed to his perhaps less devout but certainly wiser antagonists.

And what of Ronnie Earle, the Travis County district attorney whose zealous faith gives him the perseverance to prosecute innocent politicians? As an upcoming documentary film will show, Earle is not a shiftless partisan. He is a prayerful man who really believes he is doing the Lord’s work, and his wrath has fallen on Republicans and Democrats alike, even when he has no actual evidence of lawbreaking. A trifling consideration, when God is on his side. Why, it would almost be a sin to require evidence.

We can only pray that the voters of Travis County find themselves a new devouter.

If you are interested in the nexus between religion and politics (and I know you must be, because you have read this entire post), you must take a look at First Things, an intellectual journal published by The Institute on Religion and Public Life, an “interreligious, nonpartisan research and education institute whose purpose is to advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society.” Every issue is a treasure. Read the articles online, or call them and they’ll mail you a free copy.