In a society where presidents' underwear preference is common knowledge, it's inevitable that churches and their leaders would face a loss of privacy, but some see such invasions as unfair and undesirable.
"If you go to that person for spiritual advice, that doesn't mean that their politics matches yours any more than if you go to a doctor for medical advice that you'd expect him to be politically savvy," said Clyde Wilcox, a government professor at Georgetown University who has written extensively about religion and politics. "There's a case to be made for pulling back a little."
Up for grabs
The shifting loyalties of religious voters, whose support at the polls this fall is perceived as up for grabs, is also a factor in the election-year minister controversies, some say.
"This is not a new phenomenon by any means," said John C. Green, a senior fellow with the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. "But I think the principle reason these incidents are occurring is because of appeals to religious voters and because endorsements of candidates by religious leaders are much more public in this campaign."
Broader issues
In contrast with the elections in 2000 and 2004, both Democratic and Republican candidates are pointedly vying for religious voters.
Several voter groups, including Roman Catholics and evangelical Christians, could go either way, Green said.
For example, some evangelicals, particularly younger ones, are less focused on issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion, and more interested in broader issues such as global warming and poverty, said Clyde Wilcox, a government professor at Georgetown University who has written extensively on religion and politics.
To some, it seems that Republicans have benefited more from the ministerial imbroglios in recent elections, and those associated with controversial religious figures or institutions have somehow managed to avoid the heat Obama has faced.
When George W. Bush spoke at Bob Jones University in 2000 - a place where interracial dating was prohibited and anti-Catholic rhetoric was rampant - he garnered headlines briefly, but then the story faded.
Similarly, multimedia evangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, who endorsed Bush, shared a history of making extreme - some would say outrageous - statements, but that didn't appear to hurt Bush in the long run.
It is unclear why, but some observers have suggested that Democrats failed to seize the opportunity and pounce.
