I'm reading the NY Times Magazine article on Rick Santorum.
Within the article is this section:
"The main event in Allentown was on a Monday morning at the Church of God, a congregation of Hispanic Pentecostals. It was not a big gathering, just a couple of dozen people. Santorum spoke in front of the pulpit, with a stained-glass window and a portrait of Jesus behind him. He seemed to want to talk about economic development and President Bush's plan to partly privatize Social Security, which he enthusiastically supports, but many of the questions were on social issues."
According to Politics and the Pulpit: A Guide to the Internal Revenue Code Restrictions on the Political Activity of Religious Organizations, it's okay for a candidate to appear in a non-candidate capacity and talk about the issues at a church.
This is a strong example of how successfully the GOP has merged church with state at the community level and so has breached the separation between the two institutional structures.
Ach - the bully pulpit!