Lots of religious-y type news on the campaign trail recently.

On Sunday, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan called Barack Obama the “hope of the entire world.” According to the AP, Farrakhan repeatedly praised the Illinois senator before the crowd of 20,000, but never outright endorsed him. Comparing Obama to Nation of Islam founder Fard Muhammad, who, like Obama had a black father and a white mother, Farrakhan says “A black man with a white mother became savior to us. A black man with a white mother could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall.”

In light of Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic rhetoric, such a ringing endorsement is undoubtedly a mixed blessing for the Obama camp.

The Illinois senator has already been the victim of what his campaign manager has called “fear mongering,” Internet campaigns portraying the United Church of Christ Obama as a Muslim in disguise. That campaign went a bit further recently with the circulation of pictures of Obama in native Somali dress, including a turban, a politically charged piece of headgear these days.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Sen. Hillary Clinton mocked the salvational tinge that seems to color some parts of the Obama campaign, saying, “I could just stand up here and say, `Let’s just get everybody together, let’s get unified, the sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing, and everyone will know we should do the perfect thing and the world will be perfect.'”

Isn’t that what Christians do every Sunday?