A progressive evangelical says how you cut the deficit is a moral question.

As states wrestle over workers' rights, union organizing, and difficult budget and deficit debates, what do religious leaders and organizations have to say?

Pastor Matthew Cork of Yorba Linda Friends Church in California says its ministry includes producing a feature film "that has a cause and a mission behind it."

Three expert movie-watchers discuss the moral, ethical, religious, and spiritual themes they saw in some of this year's Oscar nominees.

A journalist who has written extensively on the biblical and spiritual preoccupations of directors Joel and Ethan Coen says in "True Grit" they treat the Presbyterian moral code of fourteen-year-old narrator-heroine Mattie Ross with tenderness and empathy.

"You have a whole new generation of Jews and Christians for whom all this either seems old-fashioned or unnecessary or the job has been done. There’s nothing more to do. Maybe they think we’ve succeeded, but we haven’t," says one interreligious affairs leader.

As Mideast turmoil spreads, a professor of international affairs says we are witnessing changing interpretations of religion and "a struggle over which interpretations have authority over whom."

"Faith-based organizations, as a matter of public policy, have been designated first-responder by default. But they're being asked to do it with no resources," according to Rev. Eugene Williams.

"That old singing, that old praying which I love so much—that is the great strength of my being, of my writing," says the author of "A Lesson before Dying" and many other critically acclaimed books.

"Just sit down and feel your breath," suggests teacher and author Sharon Salzberg. "We tune in, we connect, we come back."

"I think there is something beautiful and magnificent in silence," says meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg. "Meditation opens up our attention so we can see things differently."

"If there is a new state, presumably there will more religious tolerance," says Middle East author and analyst Geneive Abdo. "We can only hope so."

"The issue is are there things which are justifiably secret and ought to be kept secret, and there are," says former Ambassador Edward Rowell.

A Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is being given to legendary gospel singer George Beverly Shea, who says he hopes there will be an organ for him to play in heaven.

"I don't sing like a showman," says the famous baritone who began singing in 1947 for evangelist Billy Graham's crusade ministry. "That's the opposite of the way I feel."

"Many people are hoping there will be a more pluralistic government that will embrace the Christian Copts," says Qamar-ul Huda, a senior program officer at the US Institute of Peace.

"There's a lot of compatibility between the notion of Islamic finance and microfinance," says Roshaneh Zafar, who established a nonprofit organization that has made small business loans to hundreds of thousands of women.

In his State of the Union address to the 112th Congress, President Obama spoke of America's "common creed" and "moral example."

Why are vulnerable borrowers being harmed rather than helped by microcredit companies? Misgivings are spreading about what was once seen as a powerful weapon in the battle against poverty.

What did people of faith think about President Obama’s State of the Union address? Watch our panel of religion analysts assess the speech.