Barack Obama recently got into trouble for suggesting that alienated rural voters in Pennsylvania seek refuge in religion, rifles and rejection of outsiders.

To many observers his comments were not unreasonable, but they provided plenty of ammunition to his Democrat and Republican opponents. The admixture of faith and politics in the USA continues to produce strange effects and curious concoctions. In 'Blessed and broken' (http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20080422_1.htm [1]), Paul Campbell of Loyola Press in Chicago, the prominent Jesuit publisher, offers a perceptive overview of what is happening in America right now - another offering from the impressive new UK-based Thinking Faith website.