First up from the God Machine this week is the end of the extraordinary Nuns On The Bus tour, which wrapped up in Washington this week, after a series of well-received events in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. Suzy Khimm reported this week on the culmination of the successful tour.

There can be no doubt that the nuns have been noticed on Capitol Hill. Indeed, Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced a resolution this week, coinciding with the end of the tour, honoring nuns. They said in a statement that the resolution "recognizes the Catholic Sisters' fulfillment of their vital missions to teach our children, care for the sick, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, lead major institutions, demand corporate responsibility and fight for policies that promote human dignity."

The priorities of the Nuns On The Bus are non-partisan, but given their proposed policies -- a rejection of austerity, coupled with higher taxes on the wealthy -- Republicans, especially the right-wing chairman of the House Budget Committee who inspired the tour in the first place, are generally dismissive of their pleas.

When Democrats disagree with Catholic leaders on contraception, it's billed as proof of a war on faith. When Republicans disagree with Catholic leaders on social justice, it's proof that the right is fiscally responsible.

Also from the God Machine this week:

* A Republican state senator this week recommended a proposal that would prevent Muslims in the state from building houses of worship. Other faiths would not be affected.

* A Christian minister in Alabama is hosting a pastor's conference this weekend, and "all White Christians" are invited. Asked about the discrimination, the Rev. William Collier said, "We don't have the facilities to accommodate" those who are not "part of the chosen race."

* The Vatican is running its largest budget deficit in years. After briefly running a profit, the Vatican ran a $19 million deficit last year.

* And a growing number of American Mormons are going high-tech in the hopes of boosting Mitt Romney's Republican presidential campaign. Romney, of course, would be the nation's first Mormon president (thanks to reader R.P. for the tip).

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/07/12614620-this-week-in-god?lite

First up from the God Machine this week is a look at a new report from the Pew Forum for Religion and Public life, which as Jamelle Bouie noted, found some unexpected results when it came to evaluating the religiosity of the major-party presidential candidates.

I put together this chart this morning, showing the percentage of Americans who falsely believe President Obama is a secret Muslim, broken down by self-identified political affiliation.

Overall, less than of Americans (49%) overall, even after three-and-a-half years of Obama's presidency, can correctly identify his Christian faith, while 17% continue to believe he's a secret Muslim. But it's the GOP's far-right base that's throwing off the curve -- more than a third of them get it wrong.

What's more, note the trend -- after getting to watch the president over nearly four years, listening to his speeches in which he's talked about his Christian faith, watching him get inaugurated with his hand on a Christian Bible, more Americans believe Obama's a Muslim now than they did in October 2008, and the number of conservative Republicans who believe this has more than doubled. The more they learned about reality, the deeper they sank into their alternate reality.

The conventional wisdom was that Romney's Mormonism might pose a problem for him in 2012, but that's not the case -- Americans know he's a Mormon and don't care. With 100 days to go before the election, more voters say they're "uncomfortable" with Obama's religion than his rival's.

Also from the God Machine this week:

* Oops: "Mitt Romney is making a big push for the Jewish vote. In classic Romney (i.e., clueless) form, his campaign scheduled a trip to Israel on the Jewish fast day of Tisha B'Av." Gershom Gorenberg added, "It seems no one on his staff checked a Jewish calendar" before scheduling his trip to Israel.

* A tough sentence for a tragic cover-up: "Msgr. William J. Lynn, the first Roman Catholic Church official in the United States to be convicted of covering up sexual abuses by priests under his supervision, was sentenced Tuesday to three to six years in prison." Lynn's efforts to cover up the sexual abuse of children spanned decades, and included shielding predatory priests, transferring them to unwary parishes, and lying to the public (thanks to reader R.P. for the tip).

* In the wake of Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-Minn.) anti-Muslim witch hunt, 42 religious and secular organizations joined together this week to send a letter to lawmakers, condemning the effort. The signatories included the U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops. The letter comes a week after a similar condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.c...88-this-week-in-god?lite