Rick Perry is trying to revive an otherwise moribund campaign by touting his religious credentials– which, against Newt Gingrich (Catholic of questionable marital history) and Mitt Romney (Mormon of otherwise squeaky-clean marital history), may be his last hope. One entity, according to Funny or Die, that is not happy to have been involuntarily dragged into Perry’s anti-gay, hyper-religious politics? Jesus Himself, who kindly requested to be kept out of politics, please.

CBS affiliate KBOI in Idaho has discovered a video that alleged White House shooter Oscar Ortega-Hernandez taped in September, pleading for Oprah Winfrey to put him on her show. “My name is Oscar Ortega, from Idaho Falls, Idaho,” he begins, “and I feel I am the perfect candidate to get casted onto your show.”

After suggesting Republican voters were being “promiscuous” for cycling through their favorite candidates (or “flavors of the week”) in the presidential race, Bill Maher wondered how a hypothetical candidacy by none other than Jesus Christ would play out in modern times.

Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel appeared with Judge Andrew Napolitano last night on Fox Business to explain some of his recent comments where he wondered “what would Jesus do” about the current debt crisis? Rangel explained that clergy of all faith should weigh in on the moral question, and predicted that all would say “do the right thing” and raise the debt ceiling.

With the national debt taking up most of Congress’s summer efforts, Rep. Charlie Rangel made a special plea to his colleagues that, in voting on whether to raise the debt ceiling, they consider how Jesus would vote: “What would Jesus do this weekend?” On this morning’s Fox & Friends, former Arkansas governor (and pastor) Mike Huckabee did the research, and concluded that the first thing Jesus would do (and Rep. Rangel would not) is to pay his taxes.

It has been more than a week since Japan was hit with a devastating earthquake and tsunami, and yet only now are religious celebrities beginning to come out of the woodwork to give a spiritual explanation for what occurred. Talking to Newsmax TV, Rev. Franklin Graham confirmed that, indeed, these recent natural disasters could signal the Second Coming of Jesus, but Bill O’Reilly was right in calling out the media for exaggerating the severity of the disaster in Japan.

Stephen Colbert slammed Bill O’Reilly last week over an O’Reilly column from earlier this month titled, “Keep Christ in Unemployment.” In it, O’Reilly warned of “a capacity problem for every noble intent.” Colbert fired back by mocking what he called the “complete factual inaccuracy.” Tonight, O’Reilly responded to “wise guy” Colbert…and brought along Ann Coulter to do it.

Stephen Baldwin is no Alec Baldwin. But he’s cool with that, because he’s got even bigger aspirations: to become “the George Soros for Jesus.” How will he achieve this? As he told nymag.com’s Daily Intel, “I’m 44 years old, my plan is to be a billionaire by 50, which these days, that’s very doable.”

About 30 seconds into this video, high school running back Ronnie Hastie scores a touchdown, takes a knee, and points a finger to the sky. Then, all heaven breaks loose.

Apparently making lame puns off of the names of popular TV shows is no longer the sole domain of porn producers and Mad Magazine writers, as some church groups have gotten into the game too. Unhappy with the way the Garden State is portrayed in the hit MTV show Jersey Shore, a group of Jersey faithful have created “Jesus Shore,” a Christian themed concert which attempted to show another side of the debauched beach. “Jesus Shore” tried to save fans of the reality series from the fiery pits of Hell where, we can only presume, they were headed to get a sweet tan.

I think this may be Glenn Beck’s version of backpedaling. Nearly ten days after Time posted an article titled “Why Does Glenn Beck Hate Jesus?” — which itself followed a New York Times piece about certain church leaders encouraging their followers to stop watching Beck — Beck has addressed the issue. Sort of.

>Progressive talk radio host and frequent cable news guest Bill Press is, like me, a member in good standing of the “back five,” the scrappy White House reporters who wait patiently for Robert Gibbs to finish with the first two rows while hoping the clock doesn’t run out. His show is syndicated by Dial Global, and can be heard online or via podcast.

Tepid props to Bill O’Reilly last night for not completely taking the bait over Elton John‘s statement that Jesus was a gay man in Parade magazine. Is this yet another sign that The O’Reilly Factor host may be softening his stance?

The creative forces behind the hit television show Lost began to unveil their promotional campaign this week, starting with a stunning image of the show’s cast shot in the style of the Last Supper. You know the one, Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th century depiction of Jesus announcing that one of his 12 disciples would betray him? If this looks familiar to you (at least in a pop culture sense), its because you’ve probably seen this idea before. A bunch of times:

Nothing says December spirit like Jesus with a shotgun and Santa on the ground. That’s the front yard display that has one neighborhood up in arms this Christmas season, and though the man — no, artiste! — who created the scene understands the objection, our Central Coast News anchor assures us that he has an explanation. And it’s anti-capitalist! You have to see the clip to believe it.

A rabbi, a priest and God walk into a chat room…sounds like the setup to a joke 2.0-style, but in fact, there is a growing and natural movement for religious officials to become involved in social media. Wait – natural?

Actually, yes. Religion has always been one of the places (besides the local inn/pub) where people are inherently social.