Bad enough to experience earthly doubts about one’s choice for president.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani should not have received communion during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit because the former presidential candidate supports abortion rights, New York Cardinal Edward Egan said Monday.

Who are the Americans advising Pope Benedict XVI about the subtleties of U.S. politics and protocol as he begins his first official visit?

Noting that as he gets older, he gets more tolerant, the once anti-religious Ted Turner has joined two religious organizations to reduce malaria in Africa.

The aptly-named Creflo Dollar Jr. flies a Lear jet between his million-dollar mansion Atlanta and church services in New York City, where he also keeps a $2.5 million apartment.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are only the latest of a long list of Americans who have reached out to besieged Tibetans.

Cascadilla Creek cuts through one of Ithaca, New York’s famously gorgeous gorges and then moseys through residential downtown. On its northern bank, as it passes under North Aurora Street, sits a large, slate-roofed, circa-1913 house. In the 1970s it was Teen Challenge, a faith-based drug treatment center. Then, it passed into the hands of the Sherman family (including this writer), who sold it to an architect, who sold it, indirectly to the Dalai Lama.

As Sen. Barack Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. is cast as Public Enemy No. 1 by some commentators for his rants against the white establishment, it’s worth remembering that his congregation belongs to a liberal mainline Protestant denomination in America with a long history of offending people.

Texas has Jerry Jones, Mark Cuban, Ross Perot, the Basses and the Hunts. And then there are the Butts.

Jerry Springer: The Opera had its New York debut last night, as part of a two-night only stint at Carnegie Hall.

The scaled-down production, billed as a concert, was a test to see if American audiences would embrace the controversial show. Although it had a successful run in London’s West End, when the BBC decided to air a TV version of the musical, Christian groups protested loudly.