In U.S. politics, religion often is thrown into the mix
McClatchy NewspapersMarch 2, 2012   WASHINGTON — As the recent
flap involving Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum
shows, the mix of politics and religion is not a marriage made
in heaven.  Indeed, Thomas Jefferson said long ago that a "wall"
needed to be built to separate church and state. John F. Kennedy
reaffirmed it and the courts have long upheld it.  But in the
heat of a tight, nail-clawing Republican contest for the
presidential nomination, a more than 200-year-old constitutional
value has become campaign fodder.  As 10 states prepare to hold
Super Tuesday presidential primaries next week, it's also become
just one act in a larger, but familiar, political drama.  Even
as poll after poll shows that jobs and the economy are the
public's primary concerns, long-divisive social issues involving
matters of personal faith and beliefs this week became an
increasing part of the effort to win the White House, as well as
dominance on Capitol Hill.