Maybe Brit Hume Should Preach Buddhism . . .

Darren Sherkat, a sociologist of religion at Southern Illinois University and one of the more provocative practitioners of that trade, has crunched the numbers at his blog and found that --"Ohm my gosh!"-- Buddhists in the U.S. are less likely to stray than any other religious group, notably Protestants.

From 2000-2008, according to the General Social Surveys -- the gold standard of such measurements --17.3 percent of Protestant men reported being unfaithful to their spouse as opposed to 15 percent of Buddhist husbands. And close to 20 percent of those husbands identifying as just "Christian" were unfaithful over the eight-year period. (Similarly, 10.4 percent of Protestant wives confessed to violating the Sixth Commandment -- or the Seventh, depending on who's counting -- while 7.7 percent of Buddhist wives did so.)

On the plus side, Hume, who is divorced and remarried and says he is now practicing his Christian faith "more ardently," can point to stats showing that those who report no faith also report the highest levels of infidelity: more than 20 percent of husbands who identify with no religion were unfaithful from 2000-2008, and nearly 15 percent of the unaffiliated wives said the same.

As they say, a man has to believe in something.