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Grennell-gate takeaway: Romney needs to lead on tolerance.

And why servicemen and -women but not the victims of mass shootings, mining disasters, bridge collapses, or grain elevator explosions—all of whom have been threatened with funeral pickets? And why not those who have died of AIDS-related illnesses, the original targets of WBC pickets? Why are some deaths worthy of dignity and some not?

Without question, Land will be remembered for his important roles in America’s culture wars, especially with regard to abortion and gay rights: he helped give the SBC a public witness that stood in consistent opposition to gay rights, abortion rights and even many forms of birth control. A once moderately pro-choice denomination was transformed into a “pro-life” denomination largely under Land’s leadership. He also narrowly defined “pro-life” for evangelicals to mean strictly “anti-abortion,” eschewing the more expansive understanding of that concept offered by the Catholic Church.

No word from the Almighty on the failings of Akin’s Republican foes.

A reminder that one cannot be too skeptical of religious right claims of persecution.

But the demand for hierarchy has a larger impact on politics. In Bill Clinton’s often-quoted words: “When times are uncertain, the American people would rather have a leader who is wrong but strong than one who is right but weak.” Just as the father must rule to keep the home in order, and the Father in Heaven must be obeyed to keep the universe in order, so the “great white father” in the White House must have firm control to keep order in the political realm.

Much of the hullabaloo surrounding Rick Santorum’s comment that President Obama is a “snob” for pushing college is missing the bigger picture: that Santorum is a cosmic conspiracy theorist, and higher education sits at the heart of the imagined conspiracy.

“Seven kids! Seven kids!” one woman exlaimed at a Rick Santorum rally in Louisiana on March 21, when organizers asked people to say what they liked most about the ultra-conservative Catholic, homeschooling presidential candidate.

There was a time when it seemed like progress for Catholics and Jews to be folded into Protestant America and frequently referred to as a single entity. For most, that time has passed.

Top 8 RD stories on religion and the use and abuse of history in U.S. political life.