Megachurches don't play the same role in Iowa politics as they do in other states, so GOP candidates pound the pavement to harness the all-important conservative Christian vote around the state.

With no clear Republican presidential favorite among Iowa’s conservative Christians, candidates are running out of time and opportunities to win that key GOP voting bloc before the Jan. 3 caucus.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops is beginning to have problems with the Justice Department with regards to their position on same-sex marriage. As with the clergy sexual abuse scandal, the public spotlight on the Catholic hierarchy’s bigotry- as it is starting to be described- and on their shortcomings. It is starting to be obvious that they are trying to distract people by talking about religious freedom when, in reality, this is not about religious freedom.

It should not be surprising that Shorter University in Rome Georgia is demanding that its employees renounce homosexuality or face termination, they are also forcing them to renounce premarital sex, and adultery as well. The statement also calls for the staff to not drink alcohol in the presence of students off campus or in public places where students could be.

Shorter University is linked to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Right Wing Watch posts an exchange between anti-gay Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King and Bishop William Lori at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing yesterday on “The State of Religious Liberty in the United States.”

Last Diwali season, Rohan Sheth traded in a candlelit house and rangoli, a traditional Hindu decoration, for eating Indian food at Manhattan's Copper Chimney with his sister.

"I went out and bought a rangoli kit the very next day so this wouldn't happen again," he said, laughing.

A Mass in Hollywood celebrates the 25th anniversary of the gay and lesbian ministry established by then-Archbishop Roger Mahony. Despite a larger acceptance, participants know that challenges remain.

Twenty-five years ago, John Schaefer was a young gay man who led the singing on a momentous night at Blessed Sacrament Church in Hollywood.

Archbishop John Nienstedt of Minneapolis/St. Paul is not going to let go of his hatred of the LGBT Community, and the Rainbow Sash movement has put it that he has “declared war” on the Community in Minneapolis. As they put it, he “hopes to interrupt the march towards equality by promoting bigotry masked as religous faith.” The Rainbow Sash movement is especially critical of Nienstedt’s letter to the Catholic churches in Minnesota.

Iowa political leaders generally agree religion sometimes gets “a bad name” because of how politicians use it.

Faith plays an important role in politics across the nation, but maybe more so in Iowa. A recent poll from NBC News/Marist shows 91 percent of potential Republican caucusgoers in the state identify as either protestant or Catholic. Of those, 40 percent consider themselves fundamentalist or evangelical Christians.

Some members of Iowa’s faith community received an invitation in their mailbox this week from the Iowa Renewal Project, which is featuring Texas Gov. Rick Perry in an all-expenses-paid Pastors’ Policy Briefing in Des Moines next month.

Iowa politicians from across the spectrum agree religion is exploited for political gain.

Faith plays an important role in politics across the nation, but maybe more so in Iowa. A recent poll from NBC News/Marist shows 91 percent of potential Republican caucusgoers in the state identify as either protestant or Catholic. Of those, 40 percent consider themselves fundamentalist or evangelical Christians.