WASHINGTON — It's rare you will hear an "amen" or a "hallelujah" on the floor of the U.S. House or Senate.

But make no mistake, the 109th Congress is, collectively, a religious bunch more willing than ever to let the dictates of religion percolate through their discussions of policy and legislation.

"People are not as afraid of being ridiculed as they once were," said Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, who added that the current tolerance of religion in public debate began to emerge with the first election of President Bush, and that it is more pronounced with his re-election.

"He used nonevangelical language to put forward a defense of the teachings of Jesus Christ as being a legitimate source of inspiration and thought," Bennett said. "That was tremendously encouraging to a lot of people who keep getting hammered by those who believe that separation of church and state is the most paramount value in America, and that we must squeeze any (religious) discourse out of the public square."

Whether it is an unprecedented debate on the proper health care for a single citizen (Terri Schiavo's right-to-die case), a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages or toughening federal laws on abortion or the confirmation of judicial nominees, religious views and affiliation have moved confidently out of the shadows and into the often-unsympathetic news media spotlight.

In fact, it is difficult to find any high-profile issue on Capitol Hill that doesn't have religious undercurrents of some sort: immigration reform, welfare reform, Medicaid and Medicare reform, even the war in Iraq.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, says the Christian Right has been emboldened by Bush's re-election and it is pushing its values-based agenda hard — sometimes too hard, some argue. And because those in the Christian Right are overwhelmingly Republican, and their champions in Congress are predominantly Republicans who share their views on issues of faith and family, it has made them targets for "raw politics on the part of some," Hatch said.

"It has always been acceptable to be religious" in Congress, Hatch said. "But recently, the other side has been screaming and shouting and making us look like kooky right-wing nuts. They are trying to pin a label on us that we are somehow slavishly devoted to outside religious groups, and that is pure bunk."

Mormons on the Hill

All five members of the Utah congressional delegation are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and they are collectively recognized as among the most religiously observant of the members of Congress and among those who vote most conservatively, according to a recent analysis "The Confessional Congress: Religion and Voting Behavior."