How is it, with all the issues facing this nation, the first time our two main presidential candidates appeared together in the same forum the topic was faith? Sure, a candidate’s faith is important because it’s informative, but have we really reached a point in American politics where courting religious believers with platitudes is deemed [...]

That’s the word from The Washington Times…
They say Mr. Romney lacks trust on issues such as outlawing abortion and opposing same-sex marriage and because he is a Mormon. Opposition is particularly powerful among those who supported former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in the Republican presidential primaries earlier this year.
“McCain and Romney would be like oil [...]

With leaners
Obama - 48%
McCain - 45%
Without leaners
Obama - 45%
McCain - 41%
Obama edges up one today in the “with leaners” numbers, and both candidates gain a point in “w/o leaners” to remain steady at a 4 point spread.
So what about the religious vote?
Currently, McCain leads by a 60% to 26% margin among Evangelical Christians and holds [...]

What happens when Christians prank each other?
Prank 3:16 finds out when they attempt to convince a particularly devout fan of the Left Behind series that the Rapture has just happened…and she wasn’t part of it.

One note…Prank 3:16 says that their goal is “to provide wholesome programming while teaching Christian principles.” Do you think this clip [...]

But just because these leaders are backing McCain doesn’t mean that their followers are going to fall in line lock-step. In fact, after reading this article, I think some may find a distinct distaste for how these folks are framing their decisions.
First, TIME has the details about who was there…
The group included leaders like Phyllis [...]

Obama’s play for the evangelical vote continues…but, unlike his predecessor, he’s less interested in what faith can do and much more interested in how the faithful can help.
From AP:
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans to expand President Bush’s program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and — in a move sure [...]

And not only does it promise to be fairly flattering portrayal, but the author is detailing why evangelicals (especially young ones) may swing for Obama this election.
From Politico:
The forthcoming volume from Stephen Mansfield, whose sympathetic “The Faith of George W. Bush” spent 15 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in 2004, is titled [...]

Apparently the fervor isn’t exactly at a fever pitch for McCain, and Mark DeMoss, one of the more high-profile PR flaks for the biggest evangelical groups, is suggesting this could mean a shift to Obama.
From God-o-Meter:
You represent some of the nation’s most powerful evangelicals. What do those leaders say about McCain?
This is one guy’s [...]

As you all are likely aware, Barack Obama left his church this weekend. While the pulpit of his church has certainly served as a stage for some rather incendiary statements over the years, this move by Obama is about more than just politics. Similar to John McCain’s recent renunciation of controversial pastor John Hagee, Obama’s [...]

While this won’t shut up critics who think Obama actually believes the nonsense that Wright said, it will stop stories like this latest Father Pfleger flap from happening during the general election.

Here’s a reaction from The Corner:
It’s been just over two months since Obama’s Philadelphia speech on race — the one that was compared by [...]

Bravo to Governor Patterson for saying New York should recognize gay marriages from other states, but this has obviously made A LOT of social conservatives angry and they’re not going down without a fight.
First, Patterson’s reasoning…
Paterson issued a memo earlier this month saying that gay New Yorkers who marry where it is legal will have [...]

With this latest pastor flare-up, I stumbled across an old post from Dennis Sanders about Wright in March.
He comes at this story from a very unique perspective, and as much as I’d like for the Wright story to just go away because I don’t think Obama should be held responsible for what somebody else [...]

Obama has already condemned Comedian Father Michael Pfleger, and his connection to this joker seems tenuous at best, but that’s not going to stop people from associating Obama with remarks he had absolutely nothing to do with.
Here’s a story from the Today Show…

Honestly, I think this might help Obama. Eventually, people are going to get [...]

First the lobbyists and now the preachers.
This time it’s Rod Parsley, who has basically said America was founded to destroy Islam and has characterized Allah as a “demon spirit.”
From ABC:
Sen. John McCain rejected the endorsement of a second controversial pastor Thursday, saying there is no place for the Rev. Rod Parsley’s comments about Islam.
“I [...]

I can’t say this wasn’t expected, but it would have been nice to see him simply address Hagee and be done with it. After all, this issue would have come up without the Wright issue.
From CNN:
“Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them. I did not know of [...]

First, the audio…

Second, the commentary…
From Megan McCardle…
John Hagee is certainly right to wonder how God could have let the Holocaust happen. But . . . well, I’m kind of speechless. [...] How long before McCain has to publicly repudiate him?
From The Carpetbagger Report:
This is the guy whose support McCain worked for a year to [...]

Well done…
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The California Supreme Court has overturned a ban on gay marriage, paving the way for California to become the second state where gay and lesbian residents can marry.
The case involved a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn a voter- approved law that defines marriage as a union between a man [...]

Wow. I really never thought I’d see the day.
But how does this square with the Bible?
From the AP:
VATICAN CITY - Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God, the Vatican’s chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.
The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the [...]

The NYTimes op-ed pages, via CSIS’s Edward Luttwack, promoted a new type of Obama Islam smear: that because Obama was once a Muslim he is going to get killed by Muslims for being an apostate.
I have a response to this at Huffington Post.
Just one part:
First of all, under orthodox Islamic law, the punishment [...]

The first 14 minutes of the program today were devoted to reverend and his latest statements.

And so it goes…