A spectre is haunting America, the spectre of theocracy. Presidential candidates are either citing scripture or dropping broad hints that they will govern as “people of faith”. Barack Obama, the Democratic senator from Illinois, began his speech at a recent massive rally in South Carolina by saying: “Look at the day the Lord has made!” Ron Paul, the Texas Republican congressman, cited Augustine to buttress his opposition to the Iraq war. Mitt Romney, the Mormon who was Republican governor of Massachusetts, said in the most widely watched speech of his career: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and the saviour of mankind.”

But it is the Republican Mike Huckabee, the television preacher and former Arkansas governor, who has caused the most alarm, for three reasons. First, Mr Huckabee has tried to sow doubts about Mr Romney, his main rival in the Iowa Republican caucuses, to be held in the first week of January. “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the Devil are brothers?” Mr Huckabee asked recently. Second, he rejects the theory of evolution with a glib obscurantism out of another century. It is one thing to question the sway of Darwinian morality, quite another to say in a debate: “If you want to believe that you and your family came from apes, I’ll accept that.” Third, Mr Huckabee’s shtick appears to be working. He is leading in Iowa.