‘While biblical literalism is integral to evangelical faith, given its belief in the supposed purity of the biblical Word, evangelicals have put an indelible stamp on the choice and direction of countless positions in the Republican primary, from economic policy and taxation to healthcare and even access to birth control.’

Read more: Biblical Literalism, Secularism And American Politics

‘Rugged individualism is at the core of our civic religion. It’s central to our belief structure as Americans, and it affects just about everything we do. And it’s a fallacy.’

Read more: Is That All There Is? Rugged Individualism & Civic Religion

‘The air is full of dire warnings of an impending Israeli attack on Iran. Prophets of doom declare themselves full of forebodings and point fearfully to the meeting in the White House between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as crucial in making the decisions that will lead to peace or war.’

Read more: Media Wars & Big Bluffs: Israel’s Huff and Puff Game

‘Andrew Breitbart’s untimely death has sparked wild conspiracy theories that the publisher was murdered on the President’s orders.’

Read more: Andrew Breitbart’s unexpected death sparks wild conspiracy theories

‘Religion has done much good in the world, but it becomes dangerous when the “us and them” worldview grows rigid — when “we” claim moral (or theological) superiority over others. No one should know this better than Santorum, for Roman Catholics have been among the most persecuted groups in America. Yet for Santorum, history has had no modulating effect. The “phony” remark seems, at worst, calculated to remind voters of Wright and the “liberation theology” he preached, and in so doing to incite racism and fear.’

Read more: Sectarian Theology: The Religion and Politics of Division

‘Video: Rick Santorum speaks at Ave Maria University in 2008 and say that Satan has destroyed academia and politics and even the Protestant Church.’

Watch on YouTube: [Video] Santorum: Satan is Systematically Destroying America

‘Does Rick Santorum believe President Barack Obama is literally part of a satanic plot to destroy the United States? This is a serious inquiry.’

Read more: Does Santorum Believe Obama Is Part of a Satanic Plot?

‘In politics, it’s said, the perception of power amounts to power itself. If that’s the case, then the political power of the U.S. Catholic Bishops has long been based on little more than perception, that of an all-powerful church, an idea too often advanced by a corporate media romanced by the clerics’ silken vestments and those great stone piles in which they preach. But among the people of the church, the bishops’ pronouncements on matters of sex and politics don’t amount to a hill of beans.’

Read more: Has Obama Exposed the Powerlessness of the US Bishops?

‘The confluence of Barack Obama ‘s problem with contraception and Mitt Romney’s candidacy reminds me of that often expressed sentiment that the United States is a “religion soaked” country. It leads western democracies—including Israel—for the incidence of people who express a belief in God and pray on a regular basis. The existence of the Mormon faith is part of the larger picture. It is arguably the most successful of the new religions created in the United States during the 19th century, along with Christian Science, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, and the now defunct Shakers.’

Read more: Window on Israel: Obama, Romney, and Religion in American Politics

‘For example, check out the politicos who’re raising such a cacophony these days about big, intrusive government. Ironically, they’re usually the same knee-jerks who so fervidly advocate the expansion of government’s biggest and most intrusive force: police power. Since 9/11, this bunch has screeched non-stop that the only way to make the American people secure in this terrifying age is to jackhammer the word “secure” out of the Fourth Amendment—the only place in the Bill of Rights where the term appears.

The founders (made of much stronger stuff than today’s political harpies) believed that genuine security for a democratic people comes from strengthening their right and ability to resist the autocratic impulses of the authorities. By deliberately placing “secure” in this key Bill of Rights passage, they certainly did not intend for it to be twisted into a meek call for ever-expanding police power to “protect” the citizenry, but instead to give citizens essential legal guarantees to protect themselves from police power.’

Read more: How Team Obama, the GOP, and Tea Partiers Are All Intruding on Your Rights