I hope you are using "you" rhetorically.
I thought you wrote that considering religion when voting somehow violated religious freedom. If I misunderstood I apologize.
So, are you saying it is OK to consider it when voting but talking about it infringes religious freedom?
Is there never a situation in which what a candidate believes is relevant to whether he should be voted for?
There is no public test for religious belief for public office. Why would we want to go back to the situation we left europe in the first place for?
It is always important to consider. For instance, I would NEVER vote for someone who professes a belief in satanism, witchcraft, and the like. I, likewise, would never vote for an athiest, because that is another belief system antithetical to my own. I would also take into account other beliefs which vary from my own because I know that strongly held beliefs of any kind influence one's decisions, daily life, standards of right and wrong, and personal and professional goals. That makes me not a bigot but someone who looks to my conscience to guide me according to standards established by God and by Jesus, my Lord.
Moreover, John Adams wrote: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."