Ryan Lizza has written a thoroughly unflattering article about Michele Bachmann for The New Yorker titled “Leap of Faith: The Making of a Republican Front-runner.” The article takes a close look at her Christianity as a key to understanding her candidacy. He writes: Bachmann belongs to a generation of Christian conservatives whose views have been shaped by institutions, tracts, and leaders not commonly known to secular Americans, or even to most Christians. Her campaign is going to be a conversation about a set of beliefs more extreme than those of any American politician of her stature, including Sarah Palin, to whom she is inevitably compared. Christian readers will be interested…

Perhaps you heard the news about a giant prayer gathering in Houston, Texas yesterday called “The Response.” About 25,000 people gathered to pray and to hear messages from a variety of different speakers. One of the speakers was Texas Governor Rick Perry, who is expected to announce his candidacy for U.S. President by the end of the month.

I think Alan Wisdom’s analysis of the contentious immigration debate is well worth the read. Writing for The Institute on Religion & Democracy, he advocates for no specific policy. He merely lists items that citizens (in particular Christian citizens) ought to take into account when considering competing proposals for immigration reform. He writes: