Rubio's polite response — highlighted by his declaration that faith is "the single greatest influence in my life" — received a modest level of media coverage; the exchange, filmed by Scott and posted on YouTube, was reported by the Associated Press and picked up by other publications, though it was never treated as particularly big news or a telling moment on the trail for Rubio.

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What seems to have been lost on the media — and probably Scott, too — is that Rubio was probably waiting for just such a moment to flex his religious liberty muscles. One of the great fears among American Christians is that an increasingly secular culture will inhibit their ability to practice and express their faith openly — if it hasn't already. That fear is one reason why Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis became a hero to some (though certainly not all) Christians when she was briefly jailed in September for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Davis is an instructive analogue: Until recently, she was no different from millions of other Christians who have thought to themselves, "I would never allow my professional duties to override my religious beliefs." Most are readying themselves for a conflict that never comes, but Davis suddenly had a choice to make after the Supreme Court ruled in June that same-sex couples have a right to marry nationwide. The religious resolve that she had presumably held for a while — and which she shares with many, many fellow believers — only became notable in the face of an actual, real-life challenge.

In Scott, Rubio confronted a real-life challenge. Having an atheist accuse him of talking about faith too much isn't as quite as powerful as being sent to jail, but you get the idea. Scott's question enabled Rubio to defend his outspokenness without setting up a straw man, thus making the effort more authentic.

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And realizing how compelling such a moment could be to Republican voters, Rubio's campaign reposted Scott's video to its own YouTube channel and quickly used it to solicit donations. This is part of an email the Rubio campaign sent to donors last week:

Conservatives — believers and non-believers alike — loved seeing someone stand up for religious freedom and the importance of faith in the public square.

But I need your help to spread the word even further — click here to watch the video (if you haven’t yet), make a donation to our campaign, then share the link with a friend.

It's difficult to know exactly how many times the video has been viewed online, since it appears in several places, but the Rubio campaign claimed more than 6 million views in just a few days — an impressive figure that suggests his defense of religious liberty resonated within some segment of the electorate.

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It's worth noting, however, that a straw man can be an effective tool for positioning yourself as a champion of religious liberty. Recall that GOP front-runner Donald Trump got far more media attention for the far-sillier assertion that Starbucks was waging some kind of war on Christmas by serving coffee in plain red cups.

"If I become president, we're all going to be saying 'Merry Christmas' again," Trump told a crowd in Springfield, Ill., in November. "That I can tell you."

Trump's faith (or anyone else's, for that matter) wasn't challenged in any meaningful way by Starbucks' red cups — certainly not as directly as Rubio's was last week. Yet Trump, master of the media narrative, conjured a faux controversy and scored points as a defender of Christianity.

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Meanwhile, Rubio waited patiently for his opportunity. When it arrived last week, he made the most of it, and some voters clearly took notice.

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Unfortunately for him, the media mostly didn't. It was a little too deep in the religious weeds — kind of like Ben Carson's two-part explanation of his views on hell and the Rapture. The press missed the significance of that, too. If the issue isn't abortion or gay marriage (or red cups), religious beliefs can be difficult to cover. They often require a level of theological familiarity that many journalists and readers don't possess. Perhaps that's a flaw, but it's definitely a reality.