"Bernie Sanders Finally Answers the God Question" read this headline. "Only in America," the obvious initial response, is not entirely accurate. In other countries (but not in most other Western Democracies) religious affiliation matters enormously in politics. Long before any Iraqi politician (to take one example) ran for office, however, voters would be well aware of his or her religious identity. Sanders' case fits American politics circa 2016 because his thoughts on God matter to (at least a portion of) the electorate. His big break with recent trends occurred when he managed to evade the question until nine months into a Presidential run.
The United States has always been religiously diverse, with the scoop of that diversity steadily expanding over the last 240 years. Yet with an electorate drawn from an increasing array of faith traditions, Presidents over those decades have not reflected the general population. Presidents generally hail from older Protestant denominations. Half of the first sixteen office holders were Episcopalians, a church associated with the political elite especially in the South from colonial times when it was the Church of England. After the civil war, affiliations broadened to include other varieties of Christians, and finally, in 1960, a Roman Catholic Christian (JFK). Since John Kennedy, the U.S. has returned to Protestant Presidents. From 1970s conservative Christianity has played a larger role on the American political scene.
It is in the context of evangelical Christianity's centrality to political discourse, especially in the Republican Party, that candidates feel the need to link themselves to a particular brand of American religion. Hence Donald Trump's recent fumbling attempts at speaking to this constituency--in his speech at Liberty University in which he cited "Two Corinthians" rather than the standard "Second Corinthians". In that moment, he once again gave away his inability to talk the talk. He seemed earlier to have documented his lack of connection to this subset of voters when he attempted to assuage their concerns by handing out information on his youthful confirmation in the Presbyterian Church of his natal family, thereby revealing that he was unaware that pre-scheduled ritual moments such as a confirmation did nothing to speak to the evangelical desire to see that candidates enjoy a genuine relationship to God. He seems to have been largely forgiven such gaffs, with endorsements not only from Sarah Palin but now also Jerry Falwell.
The religious politics for Bernie Sanders differ somewhat. Democrats are less likely to be evangelical Christians and therefore less likely to share the criteria embodied by Palin and Falwell. Although both parties include some voters who are put off by the "Holy Roller" side of the Republican base (to quote Palin's shorthand for Christians of her type), the Democratic and Independent ranks number more who worry about the negative effects of religion on American politics. So when Bernie says he has values grounded in his religious upbringing but does not practice, he places a foot in both the religious and the secular camps, and he does so in such a way as to better satisfy the voters he seeks to reach in the primary. How this position--endorsing vaguely-stated values while not practicing--might play in the general election remains to be seen, should his candidacy carry him that far.
If he were to win election as the nation's 45th President, Bernie will have broken an important barrier, religiously speaking. While he would not be the first President with a vague attachment to religious values but no formal connection to a particular practice (Lincoln qualifies for this first), he would be the first person of Jewish heritage to be elected. Every previous president has been at least nominally Christian. In the modern era, men who were not affiliated with some mainstream Christian denomination with roots in the Western European past have generally failed. Hence Michael Dukakis, who was Greek Orthodox (one of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches), and Mitt Romney, a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints (or Mormons), both fell outside of this circle and both failed in their bids. Only Kennedy broke the mold, by coming to office as a Catholic, and his election occurred before the rise of the "Moral Majority" which made evangelical Christians a force in American politics. A secular Jew, Sanders comes out of a religious tradition dating back to the early American colonies, but one that has yet to make it to the pinnacle of U.S. office holding.