The Associated Press was forced to issue the following correction today:

In a March 5 story about the Kenyan family of U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama, The Associated Press reported erroneously that his step-grandmother is a Christian. She is a Muslim, according to the family.

There has been much confusion lately in the press about which members of Obama’s family are actually Muslim. Obama, apparently sensitive to being labeled Muslim, has said several times that he is Christian, although it is widely believed that his biological father is Muslim.

Why the Associated Press assumed Obama’s grandma, Sarah Onyango Obama, is Christian is not known at this point.

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In his latest campaign ad, GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee appears in front of an ichthys, or an ancient religious symbol resembling a fish, which is well-known in evangelical circles as the symbol used by early Christians to secretly identify one another without attracting persecution.

In his pre-Christmas campaign spot, the former Arkansas governor drew mixed blessings when he appeared in front of a bookshelf that was spotlighted to purposely look like a cross.

“The purpose of these ads is to highlight the things that truly matter — while underscoring my conservative record of leadership and my vision for America moving forward,” Huckabee said in a news release on Tuesday. “As we enter the closing days of the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, there are a lot of things being said on television and sent to mailboxes across the Hawkeye State. I urge Iowans to look beyond the rhetoric and seek the truth about my record and optimistic plans for our nation’s future.”

And, apparently, behind the rhetoric lies only Christian symbolism.

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For the first time in recent memory, the White House has sent out an Old Testament religious quote (Nehemiah 9:6) within the First Family’s official Christmas card:

“You alone are the LORD. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You.”

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GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney may say he’s a proud Mormon, but not proud enough to wear Mormon undergarments, according to a snoopy bathroom reporter from one of the nation’s leading newspapers.

Many in the Mormon Church choose to wear what they call temple garments, a set of underclothing traditionally worn by adults who have taken part in a ritual ceremony known as washing and anointing ordinance. The underwear is supposed to be worn regularly, and is held as sacred.

Today’s Baltimore Sun pokes fun at the tradition in an article titled, “I See Utah, I See France,” which details a time when a reporter from the paper visited Romney at his personal residence in Utah during the 2002 Olympics.

Said reporter happened to use his private bathroom and noticed a pair of underwear hanging on the back of the door as she reached for the knob to leave. They were male underwear, size 34, and were made by Fruit of the Loom.

Romney’s refused to address the issue in the past, so the paper ran the story by a campaign spokeswoman, apparently in an effort to determine whether he really doesn’t wear Mormon underwear. She was not amused, and did not comment.

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Lawrence O’Donnell, an MSNBC political pundit, has already taken a lot of heat for calling Mormonism “demented, Scientology-like” and rooted in racism, and now he’s taking on the Islamic faith, too. In a recent interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, O’Donnell bashed the religion as follows:

HH: Would you say the same things about Mohammed as you just said about Joseph Smith?LO: Oh, well, I’m afraid of what the…that’s where I’m really afraid. I would like to criticize Islam much more than I do publicly, but I’m afraid for my life if I do.

HH: Well, that’s candid.

LO: Mormons are the nicest people in the world. They’re not going to ever…

HH: So you can be bigoted towards Mormons, because they’ll just send you a strudel.

LO: They’ll never take a shot at me. Those other people, I’m not going to say a word about them.

HH: They’ll send you a strudel. The Mormons will bake you a cake and be nice to you.

LO: I agree.

What’s up with O’Donnell lately? Does he have a book coming out, or something? Has he made some sort of publicity pact with Ann Coulter?

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