In the 16 years since Eileen Scallen called to say she was bringing a girlfriend home for a school reunion, her five brothers and sisters have become accustomed to having a gay sibling.

The Mormon issue has reared its unattractive head in Iowa.

Bundled in winter coats and holding hands, President Barack Obama and his family left the White House last Sunday and strolled through a park to St. John's Episcopal Church.

The 4th UN Alliance of Civilizations Forum was held in Doha, Qatar, Dec. 11-13 with strong international participation.

A top European diplomat yesterday called on the West to stop patronising the Arab Spring and respect the results of the democratic elections that are taking place in the post-revolution Arab countries.

This week the Republican Jewish Coalition held its presidential candidates forum, and the visiting contenders engaged in transparently obsequious rhetoric to demonstrate their love of Israel.

Yesterday, the blogging was a little thin because I attended an all-day conference at the Pew Research Center on media coverage of religion and politics.

Gov. Rick Perry’s new campaign ad, “Strong,” features the line “... there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military, but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.”

Though public support for both major political parties is very low, one group of voters is usually exempted from this malaise: evangelicals.

Believe it or not, politicians used to be able to assume that when the U.S. Catholic bishops spoke on an issue, that meant that the nation's Catholics had spoken.

A quarter of Americans in a recent poll said they are less likely to support a Mormon running for president, suggesting Republican Mitt Romney continues to have a "Mormon problem."

President Obama and Republicans have repeatedly clashed over policy toward Israel, incited most recently by comments from the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, who argued that some anti-Semitism was rooted in territorial tensions between Israel and its neighbors.

Saying President Barack Obama is waging war on religion, Texas Gov. Rick Perry adds in a TV ad his presidential campaign is airing in Iowa: "I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian, but you don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military, but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school."

Religion and politics may not always mix well together, but that’s not the case for Republican candidates.

Police in Afghanistan said bombings on Tuesday hit a Shiite Muslim shrine and a mosque, killing at least 54 people, and wounding more than 100 during one of the most important days in the Shiite calendar, The New York Times reported.

In politics, there is support, and there is intensity of support. And heading into the 2012 election year, Republicans are ahead in the potentially crucial quest for intensity.

A new poll that gauges Americans' views of the Mormon faith served up difficult news for the nation's highest profile member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Mormon faith may deter some white evangelicals -- an important Republican primary voting bloc -- from backing the former governor in the GOP primaries, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center.

Religious lobbying in Washington has risen to the heavens, climbing almost five times in the last 40 years, a new study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life shows.

Lobbying and advocacy by religious groups in Washington have exploded in recent decades, increasing fivefold since 1970 to become a nearly $400 million industry, a new Pew report finds.