“Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann are both affiliated with fervid subsets of evangelical Christianity – and Rick Santorum comes out of the most conservative wing of Catholicism – which has raised concerns about their respect for the separation of church and state, not to mention the separation of fact and fiction.”

A New York Times column by outgoing executive editor Bill Keller poses some tough questions about the faith held by GOP presidential candidates that has caught the attention of online religious bloggers and conservative activists.

Keller, who frequently makes waves with provocative columns, waded into the GOP presidential candidate debate with his column this week centering on the “mysterious” religions held by the candidates.

In the past, Keller has compared religious believers to folks who think that space aliens are residing on Earth.

His column, “Asking Candidates Tougher Questions About Faith,” argues that the crop of candidates competing for the White House in the next election cycle should be grilled harder on their religious beliefs and how those beliefs form their political views.

“I do want to know if a candidate places fealty to the Bible, the Book of Mormon (the text, not the Broadway musical) or some other authority higher than the Constitution and laws of this country,” Keller writes in his column.

“I care a lot if a candidate is going to be a Trojan horse for a sect that believes it has divine instructions on how we should be governed.”

Keller does not stop at just the controversial column, he has sent a very specific questionnaire to some of the Republican presidential candidates and expects an answer.

He poses questions like: “Is it fair to question presidential candidates about details of their faith?,” “If you encounter a conflict between your faith and the Constitution and laws of the United States, how would you resolve it? Has that happened, in your experience?,” and “Do you believe the Bible consists of literal truths, or that it is to be taken more metaphorically?”

Keller also asks other, more sensitive questions, that politicians are quite savvy at avoiding, such as topics on gay marriage, hiring an atheist or Muslim to the cabinet, and evolution.

The controversial editor says he wrote the column and submitted the questions because many of this year’s GOP contenders “hail from churches that are mysterious or suspect to many Americans.”

“Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman are Mormons, a faith that many conservative Christians have been taught is a ‘cult’ and that many others think is just weird,” Keller says.

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(Editor’s Note: 7 years ago, Christian Smith, now at Notre Dame, tipped us off to the problem that this story exemplifies; check it out here.