Republicans say liberals plan to ban Bible
The Associated Press reports that West Virginia voters have received a mailing, apparently from the Republican National Committee, warning that liberals will ban the Bible if they're elected in November. "The literature shows a Bible with the word 'BANNED' across it and a photo of a man, on his knees, placing a ring on the hand of another man with the word 'ALLOWED,'" AP reporter Will Lester writes. "The mailing tells West Virginians to 'vote Republican to protect our families' and defeat the 'liberal agenda.'"

"It wouldn't surprise me if we were mailing voters on the issue of same-sex marriage," Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie told the Associated Press. He apparently made no comment about the banning the Bible issue.

John Edwards, on the other hand, is taking direct aim at the suggestion that he and his running mate are anti-Scripture. "Republicans always say they want to have a values debate but lying and spreading hate were not the values I learned growing up in a small town in North Carolina where the Bible was the most important book [in] my home," Edwards said in a press release. "George Bush and Dick Cheney should be appalled by these despicable mailings. They should condemn this practice immediately and tell everyone associated with their campaign to never use tactics like this again. The American people deserve better."

Alan Wolfe on the Democrats' "God gap" The RNC mailing is evidence that the Republicans are playing up what's been called the "God gap." But in yesterday's Boston Globe Ideas section, Alan Wolfe had a 2,000-word essay saying that the real religion-and-politics ...