Mr Rubio, 39, a darling of the Tea Party and touted as a future presidential candidate, was born and raised a Catholic by his Cuban parents. However, for the past six years he and his wife have attended the Christ Fellowship, a Florida congregation which describes itself as "non-denominational."

Since last week's election, Sarah Palin has been credited by some with helping the GOP gain seats in the House, blamed by others for preventing them from capturing the Senate and kept just about everyone guessing about whether she'll run for president in 2012.

Several Muslim leaders said the constitution was the winner Monday when a federal judge barred the Oklahoma Election Board from certifying an amendment prohibiting state courts from considering international or Sharia law.

He insists he's not running himself, but Texas Gov. Rick Perry is not shy about weighing in on the looming 2012 Republican presidential sweepstakes, telling The Washington Times on Monday that Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a fiscal conservative with few ties to the Christian right, already has stumbled, but can't be ruled out of the race.

In the beginning, there was the multimedia superstar Glenn Beck summoning his tea party congregation to a faith-friendly “Restoring Honor” rally on the National Mall.

Hawaii voters opened the way for same-sex civil unions to become state law next year, with an election that gave victory to a pro-gay rights gubernatorial candidate and rejected many church-backed candidates.

The economy may have dominated voters' thoughts — with 62 percent identifying it as their top issue, according to exit national polls.

Late on the afternoon of Election Day, James Renwick Manship joined the assembly of Tea Party supporters outside the Capitol.

A day after a winning a hard-fought U.S. Senate race, Republican Rand Paul said he was hopeful a religious attack that backfired on his opponent will head off similar strategies in future political races.

A Muslim activist in Oklahoma City filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging a voter-approved measure that bars Oklahoma state judges from considering Shariah, the Islamic religious code based on the Koran and the Prophet Mohammed's teachings, in formulating rulings.

Gay rights activists in Minnesota thought 2012 would be the year they could finally make a serious push for gay marriage in the state, but a surprise Republican takeover of the Legislature has them back on the defensive instead.

The first reaction of Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, when he heard that Republicans had taken over America’s Congress, may have been a whoop of delight.

On Sunday afternoon, Congressman Sanford Bishop was at Evangelical Faith Ministries in Albany, his final stop on an election-season tour of more than 30 mostly black churches in the final weeks of a bitterly fought contest to keep his seat in the U.S. House.

When speaking to a Tea Party gathering at Madison's Esquire Club this summer, Rebecca Kleefisch took a moment to compliment the crowd before launching into her stump speech for lieutenant governor.

A day after a winning a hard-fought U.S. Senate race, Republican Rand Paul said he was hopeful a religious attack that backfired on his opponent will head off similar strategies in future political races.

-elect Randy Hultgren, 44, from west suburban Winfield, is a state senator and evangelical Christian who said he "absolutely" believes that God directed his steps through the race.

A minister has taken on the mission of fighting poverty and hunger in the U.S. and he's calling on political leaders to do the same.

If today's election is critical for Hawaii's future, it is equally important in setting up the winners and losers in the 2012 campaign.

People normally disinclined to set foot in a church might find themselves standing in lines at one today.

State Sen. James Meeks said Monday he has handed off day-to-day responsibility for operating his massive South Side church to his senior staff and would continue the arms-length relationship if he’s elected mayor.

Hark, the promised land is almost here, the Rev. Brian Brandsmeier told his congregation Sunday morning at Faith United Church of Christ.

For a man who evangelized foreign leaders and taught Sunday school while U.S. president, Jimmy Carter has some strong words for what he sees as an "excessive melding of religion and politics."

Though the fervor has died down, religion remains an issue in Kentucky’s U.S. Senate race long after Republican Rand Paul was accused of idol worship and Democrat Jack Conway was called on to repent.

Friday became the day of the dueling religious endorsements for gubernatorial candidates Rick Snyder and Virg Bernero.

The conservative Family Research Council has launched a last-minute radio ad campaign against Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao, R-New Orleans, for his support of gay rights.

All three men running for Congress in Virginia's 2nd District said that builders have a right to construct a mosque and community center near the site of the World Trade Center terror attacks in Manhattan, but all three said they hope the folks behind the project will reconsider.

A U.S. Vatican official said voting for a political candidate who favors legal abortion can never be morally justified.

The gay rights community is up in arms after discovering that Republican congressional hopeful Scott Rigell displays is touting the endorsement of a California religious leader that the Southern Poverty Law Center has considered an "anti gay hate group" for five years.

The faith of political candidates may be of more interest to Nevadans, or the Bible Belt, than in Idaho, where Mormonism is the religion of many public officials and does not offend many others.

A mail piece showing an "Ignore the Poor" button pinned on a cleric set off a furor in a hotly contested Minnesota state Senate race on Wednesday, with Republicans demanding an apology and the head of the state Democratic Party defending the ad.

With less than a week before the election, Republicans and Democrats argued Wednesday over whether a DFLer mailer had stirred anti-Catholic sentiment.

Colorado Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck has questioned the separation of government and religion, drawing criticism from Democrats who last week chided another tea party candidate for the same view.

Republican Ken Buck's comments that he disagreed "strongly with the concept of the separation of church and state" reverberated through the political blogosphere Tuesday, forcing Buck's campaign into yet another defensive posture less than a week before the election.

BOISE, Idaho — Mormonism and politics have merged in two western campaigns this month, providing a glimpse of the renewed scrutiny Mitt Romney could face in a 2012 presidential run.

Two Democrats running for Congress praised the relationship between the United States and Israel during a forum Sunday at a Des Moines synagogue.

Six out of every 10 Protestant pastors say they disapprove of President Obama's job performance, a LifeWay Research survey found.

With Election Day just over a week away, churches on the left and right are preaching the same message: Go vote - and do it early.

Gov. Pat Quinn and Republican challenger Bill Brady focused on education, family values and President Barack Obama today in one of their final pitches to black voters at a major Chicago megachurch.

Top US Republicans, including three possible White House contenders in 2012, pushed Friday to strip US public radio of taxpayer money for firing a news analyst over comments seen as anti-Muslim.

HARRODSBURG, Ky. — At a news conference on Thursday, Rand Paul was asked whether he planned to attend a debate Monday with Jack Conway, his Democratic challenger in this increasingly nasty Senate campaign.

Sarah Palin once pursued politics out of a religious sense of calling, and considered her choice as vice presidential candidate by 2008 GOP nominee John McCain as part of "God's plan."

Rep. André Carson is one of only two Muslims in Congress; the Indianapolis Democrat insists religion isn't that much of an issue with voters he meets.

The so-called Ground Zero mosque. The Florida pastor intent on torching Qurans. And the Disneyland hostess barred from wearing a hijab.

A Democratic congressional candidate's ad is reminding voters that Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell isn't the only Delaware Republican who has questioned the idea of separation of church and state.

Two Ames churches that will host satellite voting during services this month are part of a trend blurring the line of church-and-state separation, the Iowa ACLU said Wednesday.

In a state in which the rising property tax burden is supposedly prodding voters toward revolt, the three candidates vying for Albany County's state Senate seat spent a lot of time Wednesday talking about morality.

Two national Catholic groups and some clergy in northwestern Pennsylvania are criticizing billboards that claim anti-abortion Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper's vote for federal health care legislation also supported federal funding of abortion.

Republican gubernatorial contender James "Duke" Aiona on Wednesday accused his Democratic rival's campaign of spreading what Aiona claimed is a misleading video highlighting his association with an evangelical religious group. "

Republican Christine O'Donnell challenged her Democratic rival Tuesday to show where the Constitution requires separation of church and state, drawing swift criticism from her opponent, laughter from her law school audience and a quick defense from prominent conservatives.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul said Monday he may opt out of a debate next week with Democrat Jack Conway because he is angry about an attack ad that the tea party darling claims questions his Christian beliefs.

Talk of religious faith and values is something rare on the campaign trail, but the six candidates on the stage Monday night for The AMOS Project's Faith and Values Summit at Museum Center at Union Terminal spoke about just that Monday night, and how faith guides their public service.

District 6 State senate candidate Gresham Bouma denies sending out religious-leaning mailers in Latah County that appeared to carry his endorsement and urged voters to become true believers or be "struck down."

Democratic Senators Robert Menendez and Patrick Leahy introduced S.3932, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, on September 29. The legislation's centerpiece is a "pathway" to U.S. citizenship for foreigners who have illegally entered or remained in the United States. Critics call that pathway "amnesty."

The state’s four gubernatorial candidates faced tough questioning last night on a range of issues — including their commitment to helping Haitian refugees, combating youth violence, and cracking down on banks accused of violating usury laws — during a forum organized by an interfaith group.

Democrat U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson has taken a bruising for an attack ad that called his opponent "Taliban Dan" Webster and portrayed him as a far-right Christian extremist.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul angrily accused Democratic rival Jack Conway of gutter politics for running a TV ad that questioned Paul's affiliation during his college years with a group that mocked Christianity.

In case his campaign message is not clear enough, Joel Pollak travels with visual aides.

Oklahoma state Rep. Rex Duncan expects his "Save Our State" referendum to keep Islamic law out of state courts to pass easily on Nov. 2. He's less certain a similar measure could pass in Michigan.

Oklahoma state Rep. Rex Duncan expects his "Save Our State" referendum to keep Islamic law out of state courts to pass easily on Nov. 2. He's less certain a similar measure could pass in Michigan.

Suddenly, Christine O'Donnell doesn't want to talk about values and religion.

Christian, Jewish, and Muslim clergy gathered yesterday at Trinity Church in Copley Square to urge Massachusetts residents to vote no on Question 2, which would repeal the state’s affordable housing law.

Kansas Republican Sam Brownback said Wednesday that he disagrees with many statements by controversial evangelist Lou Engle and hasn't talked to him in months.

Kansas Democrats are highlighting Republican gubernatorial nominee Sam Brownback's ties to a controversial evangelist, saying the association raises questions about his judgment.

Well, that didn't last long. The alliance between the Republican Carl P. Paladino and an Orthodox rabbi from Brooklyn has fallen apart, with the rabbi denouncing Mr. Paladino on Wednesday for his apology over remarks he had made about homosexuality on Sunday.

Even though their religious beliefs are not always in line with one another, dozens of church leaders from different denominations found common ground Wednesday regarding one of the most controversial topics of the time — immigration reform.

The immigration debate has drawn Latinos into the public square more fully than ever before -- and Hispanic Protestants in particular -- Gabriel Salguero, a noted Latino evangelical author and thinker, recently told an audience at Mercer University.

Carl P. Paladino's introduction to the world of conservative Jewish politics began with an unsolicited early-morning phone call three weeks ago to his campaign manager, Michael R. Caputo.

The tea party movement was born in anger over the recession and the Obama administration's bailouts, and built largely on a platform of lower taxes and smaller government.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino told Orthodox Jewish leaders on Sunday he doesn't want children "brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality" is acceptable.

Valerie Williams has a passion for preaching the Christian gospel and the right of gays and lesbians to marry and live free of discrimination.

Republican Nikki Haley's campaign announced on Monday her endorsement from the political committee of South Carolina Citizens for Life, days after two GOP activists questioned her vote on a proposed change to an abortion bill.

 There are plenty of differences between the two major-party candidates for governor, but nowhere is the contrast more stark than on social issues.

 Republican James "Duke" Aiona said if he wins the gubernatorial election, he will propose a constitutional amendment in 2012 to ask voters whether marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman.

 Eleven months out of the year, the parishioners of New York City can safely attend Sunday services with no reasonable fear of interlopers, television cameras or quizzical members of the press.

 Allies of Republican gubernatorial candidate James ''Duke'' Aiona are employing a phrase in television ads and brochures that has been used innocuously in different contexts over the years.

 In the hotly contested race for governor, one issue that clearly defines the candidates—and often divides the electorate—is the death penalty.

 The leader of a national abortion rights organization that has endorsed Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal warned Friday that Connecticut voters who favor abortion rights cannot trust his Republican opponent.

A United Methodist agency has withdrawn its endorsement from this weekend's One Nation Working Together rally here, an event that has drawn support from religious progressive groups.

U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson said he opposes federal funding for research on embryonic stem cells, both on moral grounds and because eliminating the funding would help balance the federal budget.

Injecting the Mattapan killings into the state attorney general's race, Republican candidate James McKenna said yesterday that in light of the gruesome deaths it was time to revisit the death penalty in Massachusetts.

The IRS should investigate an Edmond church whose pastor endorsed a gubernatorial candidate from the pulpit, the head of a religious liberty watchdog group said Wednesday.

Faith-based organizations are teaming up with secular and progressive groups for this weekend's (Oct. 2) One Nation Working Together rally.

Former state Sen. Daniel Webster has collected more than $100,000 in online donations since Rep. Alan Grayson (D) released a campaign ad that called him a religious fanatic and compared his views to those of the Taliban.

 Abortion opponents hoping Colorado officials would revise language about a ballot measure to outlaw abortion on a state voters' guide lost their effort in court Thursday.

 Democrat Andrew Cuomo picked up the endorsement of a prominent women's group Wednesday, as the gubernatorial candidate works to energize his party base amid conservative enthusiasm for Republican rival Carl Paladino.

The North Shore suburban 10th Congressional District is wealthy, socially liberal, and for the last 10 years has sent a self-styled moderate Republican, Mark Kirk, to Washington.

 The issue of abortion rights is becoming a key debate in the race for attorney general.

When Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) agreed to attend a fundraising dinner in Washington for the Log Cabin Republicans, many social conservatives were outraged. The group has long urged the GOP to be more accepting of gay rights, and some Republicans worried that the appearance by Cornyn, a party leader in Congress, would further legitimize its views.

Californians tend to think that capital punishment in the South — especially in Texas, where the overwhelming majority of executions take place — is driven by politics.

 Andrew M. Cuomo sharply criticized his Republican opponent for governor, Carl P. Paladino, on Monday for his positions on abortion, welfare, and education, after days of public and private pleas from fellow Democrats to take his rival more seriously.

Thrishanna Martin considers her pro-choice stance among her most important concerns - second only to the economy - even in statewide races like the Michigan gubernatorial contest.

"Love Thy Neighbor" was the topic of David Shelley's sermon on Sunday, but some people felt less than loving about Shelley's plan to endorse political candidates Sunday.

The five candidates for governor are divided on gay marriage in Maine, but most are cool to downright icy on casino gambling even as residents prepare to vote on a proposed $165 million casino and resort in the hills of western Maine.

 The moratorium on executions in Illinois has existed as a purely political animal since former Gov. George Ryan commuted all death sentences to life terms in January 2003.

When pollster Peter Brown was in town 10 days ago, he proclaimed the economy "issues 1 through 129" in Ohio's gubernatorial election. So does that mean traditional hot-button topics such as abortion, same-sex marriage, gun rights and im migration are relegated to duking it out for 130th place this year?

Some of the sharpest contrasts between Betsy Markey and Cory Gardner come on social and cultural issues, though neither 4th Congressional District candidate has emphasized such issues this year.

Conventional wisdom in the last election cycle held that Mitt Romney could never win the hearts of America's conservative evangelicals—the Republican base—because he's Mormon, and evangelicals don't consider Mormons to be properly Christian.

San Quentin Prison's warden walked to the death row cell of Albert Greenwood Brown on Aug. 31 and read a warrant informing him of his scheduled execution this week.

 For many of the parishioners of San Juan Diego Catholic Church in northwest Dallas, fear is proving to be a great motivator.

Taxes, deficits and jobs have dominated almost every governor's campaign debate this election season. Whatever happened to the usual hot issues -- abortion, immigration and same-sex marriage?

It's true that Christine O'Donnell, Delaware's surprise senatorial candidate, bears some resemblance to Sarah Palin.

Republican congressional candidate Renee Ellmers has released a television advertisement that calls the planned Muslim community center in New York City a "victory mosque" and associates it with terrorists.

 With voters across the country overwhelmingly focused on jobs and the economy, Democrats have spent money and energy in Colorado's U.S. Senate race on the issue of reproductive rights.

The Democratic gubernatorial ticket charged Monday that Republican Rick Snyder is not an advocate for women.

The arrival of the Tea Party as an American force has shaken the U.S. political establishment. It is a sea change, compared by commentators such as Gerald Seib in The Wall Street Journal as similar to the arrival of the conservative movement headed by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

Congressional Democrats' last-ditch, pre-election effort to pass gay rights and immigration legislation fell victim to a Republican-led filibuster Tuesday, dealing a setback to those trying to lift the ban on openly gay troops serving in the U.S. military.

Tea party leaders stung by turmoil over anti-gay rhetoric from their ranks acknowledge the publicity over the issue hurts the movement but hope the rancor will be short-lived.

 The divisive social policy issues of abortion, gun control and gay rights define some distinct differences among the three candidates of the 8th Congressional District.

Months after backing a controversial health insurance reform bill that critics said might open the door to taxpayer-funded abortions, anti-abortion Democrats in Congress, including three Ohioans, face attack campaigns over their votes.

Ella Shank was among those who helped Christine O'Donnell upset longtime Rep. Mike Castle in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate.

The four candidates in the 14th Congressional District admit they don't have all the answers when it comes to the immigration reform. In a contentious race with a national spotlight, the incumbent and his top challenger would not provide answers when it came to some of the more divisive immigration reform problems.

As a Republican primary candidate, Ken Buck took absolutist positions on abortion and "personhood" — declaring that if elected to the U.S. Senate he would sponsor a constitutional amendment to ban abortion and backing a proposed state law that would outlaw some common forms of birth control.

With its emphasis on lower taxes and smaller government, the "tea party" movement hasn't spent a lot of time on the social issues that animate social conservatives -- abortion, gay marriage or stem cell research.

Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle said Thursday she will concentrate on pocketbook issues if elected in November and will not emphasize a "personal agenda" on social issues that has included support for school prayer and opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Malloy Thursday said his administration would guarantee continued support for stem cell research as an investment that will generate jobs, as well as possibly help find a cure for debilitating illnesses.

After a bitter campaign marked by mudslinging and contentious divisions over race, religion and gay rights, two longtime political rivals in Hawaii meet in a primary Saturday to decide which Democrat will try to recapture the governor's seat from Republican hands after eight years.

Right to Life of Michigan has for the first time endorsed an opponent against veteran U.S. Rep. Dale E. Kildee, but a Lansing pollster and the Republican hopeful who claimed the endorsement have split views on how much influence it will have on anti-abortion voters.

Gov. Deval Patrick recalled Thursday being harassed by police officers as he bought candy as a youngster in Milton, saying it buttresses his belief in racial tolerance and religious freedom that extends to supporting the construction of a mosque near ground zero.

In the bright light of Wednesday morning, Christine O'Donnell, whose Republican primary victory upended the calculus for future control of the United State Senate, became quickly known to Americans as the woman who once made dire warnings about the negative impact of masturbation.

'Momentum is building to repeal the death penalty in Illinois." So declared a press release that landed in my inbox Tuesday from the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, which is kicking off a campaign to hold a repeal vote in the Illinois Legislature this fall.

Gov. Charlie Crist said Tuesday that he'll consider ending a legal battle over Florida's ban on adoptions by gays, but a man who challenged the law doesn't want him to.

The nation's social conservatives may have ceded center stage to economic conservatives and the "tea party" movement for the midterm elections, but they're not keeping quiet.

 The Labor Day parade was over and the flag-waving candidate was famished.

 The “cold-blooded” murder of a Hyde Park deliveryman for his pocket cash and a pepperoni pizza has reignited the push to reinstate the death penalty - in the middle of a hotly contested gubernatorial campaign just as the race kicks into high gear.

 Sen. Michael D. Crapo of Idaho might seem like an unlikely person to be pushing a bill to cut federal taxes on small beer breweries: As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he abstains from alcohol.

 Rivals for New Hampshire's Republican Senate nomination vied for the support of conservative voters Thursday night in a polite debate that yielded agreement on federal spending cuts, a reduction in size of the government and repeal of the health care law that President Barack Obama won from Congress.

 Democratic Senate candidate Kendrick Meek is “off the mark” when he says in his new TV ad that he's the only candidate against privatizing Social Security and for abortion rights, Gov. and independent Senate candidate Charlie Crist said today.

Lively debate continues about just how many people showed up to attend Glenn Beck's rally at the Lincoln Memorial, but there has been less interest in exactly why they showed up.

 Gov. Charlie Crist, visiting Moffitt Cancer Center today, renewed his support for embryonic stem cell research, even though he declined to act on the issue as governor.

The Orange County mayor's race between Bill Segal and Teresa Jacobs likely will turn on broad themes of trust and competence, or who has the best plans to create jobs, balance budgets and keep government services intact.

An anti-abortion group plans to air radio ads in three congressional races calling for the defeat of Democratic incumbents, among the first ads to capitalize on a Supreme Court ruling this year that freed corporations to directly influence elections.

Hawaii State GOP Chairman Jonah Ka'auwai's letter criticizing two Democratic candidates for governor went viral after appearing on the Hawaii Christian Coalition website.

The five Republican candidates for the 3rd Congressional District were the latest to sound off yesterday on a controversial proposal to build a mosque and Islamic community center close to the site of the Sept. 11 attacks.

A ballot measure that would bar abortions in every circumstance and even ban emergency contraception is back before Colorado voters this fall—but the campaigns for and against it are toned down from two years ago.

 Amy Everitt, State Director of NARAL Pro-Choice California, announced that PrivacyPAC, the organization's political action committee, is proudly and enthusiastically endorsing candidate Kamala Harris for California Attorney General, an office that has significant influence over issues impacting the right to choose.

 Matt Snook used to work at the Baptist youth camp that James Lankford ran for 13 years, and he was on hand Tuesday night when Lankford celebrated his victory in the 5th District Republican congressional primary.

 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Vincent Sheheen considers himself pro-life.

 Utah's two major Senate candidates disagree on whether an Islamic center and mosque should be built near New York City's Ground Zero.

 Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman said Friday that she would defend voter-approved Proposition 8, which prohibits same-sex marriage, if she becomes governor next year.

Republicans seeking to unseat Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer want a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling on abortion overturned and want to see the proposed New York City mosque moved farther away from ground zero.

 The Sunday before election day: a time for prayer, for noisy get-out-the-vote rallies and for some campaign workers to grumble about money owed by their billionaire candidate.

 Leaders of a Jewish Democratic group praised U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek's "stellar" support for Israel today after a mailer by primary rival Jeff Greene accused Meek of offering only "bland promises" to protect the Jewish state.

When introducing the Republican-turned-independent Gov. Charlie Crist to a left-leaning crowd Wednesday, Democratic state Rep. Ari Porth joked that he had brought Crist some rugelah so he could have a taste of Broward.

 Georgia's gubernatorial hopefuls both said Thursday they oppose building a mosque near ground zero in New York City.

As vulnerable congressional Democrats weigh how to respond to President Barack Obama's statements on Muslims' right to build a mosque near ground zero, those in New York and closest to the controversy are staying silent or scrambling away.

The Diocese of San Bernardino wants its parishioners to vote not just as a matter of patriotism, but of faith. 

Organizers of a forum about Israel say are they are stunned that two Democratic candidates backed out at the last minute.

As Republican candidates across the country seize on the proposed construction of a mosque near New York's Ground Zero as a campaign issue, some influential figures in the GOP are growing concerned that it could backfire.

The controversy over a proposed mosque near ground zero has become a national political issue, expanding its reach into individual U.S. House races far from Lower Manhattan in every conceivable way: for example, Oklahoma's 5th Congressional District.

A planned mosque near the site of the 2001 World Trade Center attacks - suddenly a topic of national conversation after President Obama weighed in Friday - drew noticeably different responses from Florida's leading Democratic Senate candidates in their fourth and final debate today.

 Seeking the middle ground on a polarizing issue, Rep. Joe Sestak said that as long as constitutional rights are respected, it's up to New Yorkers to make the decisions on a proposal to build an Islamic study center and mosque near the former site of the World Trade Center.

Republican Congressional candidates on Monday intensified efforts to inject the divide over construction of an Islamic center near ground zero into the midterm campaigns while the Senate's top Democrat said he objected to the mosque being built there.

The top Republican in charge of Senate campaigns said Sunday that President Obama's support of a Muslim group's right to build an Islamic center near the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York would become an issue in the fall elections.

Congressional candidate Mike Pompeo issued an apology Thursday to opponent Raj Goyle, saying his campaign accidentally directed Pompeo supporters to an online blog post assailing Goyle's religion and ethnic heritage.

Catholic Charities of Idaho has called off a roast of the four major candidates for Governor and the 1st District House seat because of what it called a threat from independent gubernatorial candidate Jana Kemp.

When it comes to homosexuality as a campaign issue, Bill McCollum is a study in contradictions.

After Harry Reid won re-election in 2004 and became Democratic leader of the Senate, the devout Mormon set up a faith-based website to court religious voters who had just helped return Republican President George W. Bush to the White House.

While a high-profile battle rages over a mosque near ground zero in Manhattan, heated confrontations have also broken out in communities across the country where mosques are proposed for far less hallowed locations.

Gov. Rick Perry and Democratic challenger Bill White agree that while plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero have stirred controversy, they don't object to a local decision affirming the Islamic group's right to build it.

Ex-Assemb. Sharron Angle (R) "believes the clergy should be allowed to endorse candidates from the pulpit and opposes laws allowing gays to adopt children, according to a questionnaire" obtained by the AP.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's eloquent and at times emotional speech in defense of a proposed mosque near ground zero this week is already being called the most stirring of his career as a public official.

When Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle told a Christian news interviewer this year that "entitlement programs (are) built to make government our God," she voiced a central tenet of Christian Reconstructionism, according to academics who study the movement.

Attorneys for Gov. Jan Brewer and Attorney General Terry Goddard have asked a judge to dismiss a Latino clergy group's lawsuit that seeks to overturn Arizona's new immigration law.

The debate over a planned Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero became a court fight Wednesday, as a conservative advocacy group sued to try to stop a project that has become a fulcrum for balancing religious freedom and the legacy of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Gov. Deval Patrick, who this spring became the state's first sitting governor to visit a mosque, lent his support yesterday to an Islamic Center proposed near ground zero, stepping into the middle of a growing national furor over locating a Muslim house of worship so near the site of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Chris Carney says health issues involving the congressman's wife, not lack of support, is the reason Carney did not sign on as a co-sponsor to a bill seeking to prohibit taxpayer dollars from funding abortions.

Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle sees her campaign as a battle to stop Democrats in Washington who want to expand entitlement programs and "make government our God."

Mosques aren't roiling just New York. Plans to build a Muslim worship center in Murfreesboro, Tenn., have taken a front seat in two major political races that Tennessee voters will decide Thursday.

President Obama, who made outreach to Muslims a central theme of his first year in office, has decided to sit out the national debate now raging over the plan to build a mosque near the site of Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan.

He is best known in New York as the ballet-loving billionaire who bought the Fifth Avenue flat owned by the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

The mosque planned for Ground Zero is expected to pass a major hurdle Tuesday.

With city approval of a proposed mosque and Islamic center two blocks away from Ground Zero nearly secured, the battle over the project is moving away from zoning boards to the court of public opinion.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown talked about his experience with faith at a forum in San Francisco on Saturday while also managing to get some laughs at the expense of his absent opponent.

Arizona's controversial immigration law went into effect this week, or at least parts of it. Despite significant support for the bill in the state, critics have been loud and organized. A big part of that opposition has come from the religious community. From member station KJZZ, Peter O'Dowd reports.

One candidate for governor sometimes sings hymns aloud to himself.

Leaders of the Jewish community rolled out support for Democratic Rep. Michael McMahon yesterday, as Republicans and others on the right excoriated his re-election campaign for releasing to the media a list of his opponent's Jewish donors.

An influential Jewish organization on Friday announced its opposition to a proposed Islamic center and mosque two blocks north of ground zero in Lower Manhattan, intensifying a fierce national debate about the limits of religious freedom and the meaning of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

When conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck warned churchgoers to "run as fast as you can" if their pastors preach about "social justice," was he encouraging them to run from the Bible?

As the election approaches and the race narrows in the Kansas 4th District Republican primary, Sen. Jean Schodorf is the latest candidate to come under attack from an Ohio-based activist group supporting Republican National Committeeman Mike Pompeo.

A conservative blogger's accusation that Nathan Deal, a Republican candidate for governor, "explicitly voted to fund abortions" earned a "false" rating Wednesday from a newspaper's campaign fact-check website — and an online apology from the blogger.

Hours after a lower Manhattan community board recommended that the city not grant landmark designation to a building expected to be turned into a mosque near Ground Zero, opponents of the project threatened to go to court to stop demolition of the 1850s Italian Renaissance structure.

Comments by Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey suggesting that Islam might be a cult and that Muslims might not qualify for constitutionally guaranteed religious freedoms drew criticism from Islamic groups Tuesday and an eruption of national media attention.

Kansas Rep. Jerry Moran is telling voters that his stance against abortion is an innate matter of faith as he responds to allegations that he tried to downplay his beliefs to avoid upsetting moderate voters in his bid for U.S. Senate.

About 60 candidates, most running for state and local seats, have committed to take part in an Aug. 11 candidate forum at Bell Shoals Baptist Church.

A loosely organized protest planned this week over a proposed new mosque in Temecula whose organizers urged demonstrators to bring their dogs was sharply denounced by a Southern California Islamic organization Tuesday.

Nearly four years ago, Luis Gonzalez founded a Spanish-language ministry he calls the Omega Xeneration, or simply TOX. The congregation meets every Sunday at Church of the Beatitudes in Phoenix.

 Independent candidate for governor Timothy P. Cahill last week picked up the endorsement of a key Massachusetts antiabortion group despite his support for abortion rights, which he promoted on his campaign website just two months ago as one of his "core values."

 Just days into the Republican runoff for governor in Georgia, abortion has emerged as a polarizing issue in a race where social conservatives will hold sway.

 Rep. Joe Sestak has lashed back at a television commercial questioning his support for Israel, one of two recent ads from outside groups that offer sharply contrasting portrayals of the Democratic Senate nominee's position.

This hard-hitting advertisement against Representative Joe Sestak, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania, marks the debut of a hawkish, pro-Israel group, the Emergency Committee for Israel, led by William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard.

Dee Rowland of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City and Scott Parker, chairman of the Salt Lake LDS Public Affairs Council, will join other faith leaders Tuesday at the governor's immigration summit.

The term "100 percent pro-life" means different things to different people — and congressional candidates Mike Pompeo and Wink Hartman are no exception.

Sarah Palin, who waded into a New York political fight by endorsing Ann Marie Buerkle in NY-25, is drifting into a decidedly higher-charged battle: The fray over a planned mosque near Ground Zero.

At a time when the prospects for immigration overhaul seem most dim, supporters have unleashed a secret weapon: a group of influential evangelical Christian leaders.

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez interrupted a recent Thursday night Bible study class at Sacramento's Christian Worship Center to discuss a topic he knew concerned many of his congregants: immigration reform.

Lawmakers and clergy members traded biblical passages Wednesday on Capitol Hill at an immigration subcommittee hearing on the moral implications of comprehensive immigration reform.

Ex-Rutherford Co. GOP Chair Lou Ann Zelenik (R) called for an investigation into the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, as she said the center is secretly pursing a "radical agenda" based on online postings.

Hundreds of people are participating in a protest march on East Main Street to the Courthouse concerning the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro's new facility on Veals Road.

Two major broadcasters have rejected an advertisement that urges viewers to protest a mosque being constructed two blocks from Ground Zero.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio and opponents of a planned mosque near Ground Zero yesterday demanded that owners reveal their funding source for the $100-million project a day after Mayor Bloomberg said to do so would be "un-American."

The ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee said Monday he favors an investigation into the funding of a proposed mosque near ground zero in New York City.

Dozens of opponents and some supporters of a mosque planned near ground zero attended a raucous hearing Tuesday about whether the building where the Muslim place of worship would be created warrants designation as a city landmark and should be protected from development.

After eight years under a Democratic governor who has championed abortion rights, opponents are rallying around two Republican candidates who oppose the procedure in all circumstances.

As the Obama administration tries to mend its strained ties with Israel, strategists say U.S. policy on the Jewish state could influence several battleground House and Senate races this fall.

For the next 13 days, all stops are off when it comes to debating the issue of illegal immigration.

Some prominent conservatives are speaking out in favor of the kind of comprehensive immigration bill that many Republicans oppose -- one that would include border security and then a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Holy wars are breaking out all over New York. Three separate plans to build Muslim worship centers in New York City have proved more difficult and contentious than expected, igniting protests by local residents and anti-jihad activists and prompting charges of "Islamophobia" and bigotry.

The Rev. John W. Bowie knows it is hard to sell the people in his neighborhood on the idea that they should support changing immigration laws to give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

They're separated by thousands of miles, but they share a common controversy: Mosques. Murfreesboro, Tenn., has joined a growing list of midsized towns in the U.S. that are embroiled in conflicts over proposed mosques being built or bought in their neighborhoods.

Since winning the Republican nomination in the Nevada Senate race Sharron Angle has drawn attention and controversy for a host of conservative policy prescriptions that seem well outside the political mainstream.

Illegal immigration is at the centre of a renewed American debate. Arizona's Governor Jan Brewer recently signed SB1070, also known by the cheerful misnomer "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act." At present, immigration is regulated by federal law.

Sitting on a hotel stage at the national convention of the Right to Life Committee, Rep. John Boehner smiled as Darla St. Martin, the group's co-executive director, introduced him as speaker of the U.S. House.

Moving to preempt concerns from restive social conservatives, Terry Branstad's Iowa gubernatorial campaign is blasting out an email and robo-calls which tout the social conservative credentials of his new running mate, state Sen. Kim Reynolds.

Plans for a new Islamic center south of Murfreesboro have some residents denouncing the Muslim religion and others calling the dispute one of the ugliest displays of religious intolerance in the county's history.

The first person arrested under SB 1070 might not be an illegal immigrant, but your pastor.

Religion could emerge as a wedge issue in this year's race for governor after Republican state Sen. Jake Knotts' reference to GOP front-runner Nikki Haley as a “raghead” and voter confusion about Haley's religious conversion to Christianity from Sikhism.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown said Tuesday that he is sorry that Jewish leaders were upset by comments in which he compared the saturation campaign of GOP contender Meg Whitman to that of a Nazi propaganda minister.

A South Dakota minister says he wants to do for religious freedom what the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. did for civil rights.

For three days they gathered under one roof -- evangelical and mainline Christians, city and suburban Christians, professors, artists, musicians, and preachers.

An influential group of religious conservatives said Monday it would sit out the fall gubernatorial election as promised after candidates it favored lost in last week's Republican primary.

Nikki Haley, the favorite to become the first governor of South Carolina who is neither white nor male, has always challenged established norms with her own brand of moxie.

Another memoirist might prefer to keep such matters private, but Sarah Palin is not another memoirist. In Going Rogue: An American Life, Palin describes, perhaps for the first time in the history of political autobiography, a furtive trip to an out-of-state drugstore to obtain a do-it-yourself pregnancy test.

Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a Republican-backed bill that would have required women seeking a first-trimester abortion to pay for an ultrasound exam and, with few exceptions, view the image or have it described to them by their doctor.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio came seeking votes in one of the most heavily Jewish, overwhelmingly Democratic communities in Florida on Thursday, proclaiming hard-line support for Israel.

When Nashville's Richard Land talks to Hispanic Southern Baptists this month, he'll tell them the denomination supports establishing a path to U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Majorities of born-again Christians, supporters of the tea party movement and first-time Republican primary voters say they back Terry Branstad to be the GOP nominee for governor, according to the latest Iowa Poll.

Local religious leaders urged their followers on Sunday to keep up hope for a comprehensive immigration reform bill, despite signs that Congress likely won't act on major immigration legislation this year.

Rand Paul, the Tea Party insurgent who was the upset victor in last month's Kentucky Republican Senate primary, could be the biggest headache yet for a Republican Party that hopes to capitalize on the populist surge without being tainted by the movement's extremists.