The issue I have is if they use their beliefs to legislate or govern. Theoretically, at least, legislation and government are supposed to be what the people want, not what a religious belief dictates.
I don't care what religion a politician is, or isn't, or if they are atheist.
I do care if they say that their religion, or book or bible guides what they do.
That is not what I vote for. Simple as that.
Some beliefs actually belong to politicians who legislate against gay people, for instance, because their "belief" tells them being gay is wrong.
It is self-defeating to pretend the posts about religion and politicians are about the religion itself, it is about politicians who openly say hey, I will govern using my interpretation of a bible.
So - straw man, saying people are upset about a politician having a religion. That is not the point at all.

(necessarily) about the religion that a person claims he/she belongs to, but what that religion will lead him/her to do if he/she gains elective office.

We should have real trepidations about religious people who, for example, want to turn the US into a theocracy. We should worry about religious people who want to criminalize abortion or homosexuality. We should worry about those who think women should go home and shut up.

How to decide if a candidate believes in any of those reprehensible things? Well, if you, as a candidate, are politically naive and/or only want to appeal to a very red voting district (Brat), you can come right out and say you believe the US ought to be run with God's law rather than man's. It's easy to recognize those sorts of candidates; they're up front.

However, it's harder to separate out politically savvy candidates who know better than to espouse such beliefs outright. We can look at 1) who the politician associates with after hours, including which religious groups; 2) what the person says in private (if it leaks, a la the Romney 47% video); 3) the candidate's own words in the past (speeches before becoming famous or books written by candidate); whether the actions the candidate took in his/her public life reflects the religion the candidate belongs to.

It's pretty simple, actually. The fact that there are many on DU who deliberately accuse others of "hating on religion" when our actual points are ignored is pretty dismaying.

Religion should not be a stated motivation for a leader of a nation with a church/state seperation, and a blanket clause of 'no religiouse test' for holding public office.

a politician is not observing the separation of church and state.

For many with strong religious beliefs, separation issues are equally strong.

problem for some people. We are all in this mess together.

but I think some do not feel that way if views do not align.

While I'm not anti-religion as such, I do notice that my utter contempt for christian charlatans of the fundamentalist/dominionist type has had me bashing religion when I shouldn't be. It's almost as if I did so in an attempt to compensate to blunt the momentum of those who try to install a theocracy. Then I feel bad for possibly offending any non-fundie christians.

I liken it to what I'll call my "faucet analogy": You know how on a single spouted faucet with 2 valves ( hot & cold ) how hard it is to adjust the valves get a nice warm temperature for washing? How sometimes you have to turn the hot water on full blast before you can ease it back to a perfect temperature? Kind of like that.

It is not about the religion, it is about the politics presented via religion, the anti gay crap, the anti choice bullshit. Believe what you like, if you leave me out of it I would never notice, but if you come after my rights I do notice. The Family is bad, Hillary praises them, that is bad.
The Family is vehemently anti gay, so if you expect LGBT support for them you will be very disappointed.
They are the ones who say there is not equal room for all, they express that in words, laws and actions. They literally oppose the equal rights of minority groups they don't like. That's the problem.
Pretending it is about not liking someone's religion is disingenuous and self serving bull crap. They oppose my rights, so yeah, I oppose them. Don't you?

This early pandering of Hillary's tells me she WON'T be running on economic issues