• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, November 1, 2007

Putting a new twist on the intersection of church and state, Beliefnet has launched a widget to track the role of religion in the presidential race: the God-o-Meter.

By clicking on the heads of candidates in either party in an odometer-like graphic, users can view a candidate's latest reading on a 0 to 10 scale, with 0 being a "secularist" and 10 a "theocrat."

The God-o-Meter's criteria includes factors such as a candidate's rate of "God talk" and the impact of religion-related developments on a campaign. Fred Thompson's score, for instance, tumbled after a letter leaked saying an influential Christian broadcaster wouldn't support him.

Burning up the God-o-Meter recently were John McCain, Mitt Romney and Bill Richardson, each with a score of 8. Bringing up the rear were Thompson, Mike Gravel and Chris Dodd with ratings of 3,4 and 5. People can also use the widget to track a candidate's ratings history.

"We're not assigning any desirability to being a '2' versus a '9,' " says Beliefnet politics editor Dan Gilgoff, who is blogging about the campaigns and religion on the God-o-Meter site. "We're just objectively rating them for people to decide."

The God-o-Meter is also found offline through a partnership with Time, in which the magazine is featuring a selected candidate's ratings each week, along with a key post from the God-o-Meter blog. The meter will be running throughout the 2008 presidential campaign.