What I'm about to say is already implicit in what you wrote: I'd say the same about posting in any of the other forums as well. Of course, given its history, I easily see why the Religion Forum may deserve special attention.
Your second sentence quoted here contains my big reason for not wanting to close the Religion Forum or regretting that it was ever started:
I see politics and religion as intertwined, and in fact I see my politics as a result of my faith, not the other way around. I can imagine a policy that banned all primarily "religious" threads that had no obvious relation to news or politics, but that distinction would be artificial, even unnatural.
And then I would imagine enough religious discussion that it would be most suited to having its own forum instead of being all in something like Chat. (Being on its own forum would also work to the liking of those who don't want to see religious talk, since then filtering would be easier.)
Amen to that! That's the proper order.