"The Democrats' faith outreach in 2010 hasn't been anything like it was in 2008…They really needed to ramp up their faith outreach, and they haven't done that."

Gay marriage is not a campaign issue in Minnesota this season, and it’s not on the ballot. But the Catholic archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis recently sent a message opposing gay marriage to every Catholic family in the state. Father David of McCauley of the Minnesota Catholic Conference ...

Benedict has increased the number of Italians and Vatican bureaucrats in the College of Cardinals, observes Thomas Reese, SJ, a senior fellow at Georgetown Univeristy's Woodstock Theological Center.

The California Council of Churches supports Proposition 19 to legalize marijuana, but there are some religious leaders who do not.

The Catholic Church once excommunicated her for uncovering a case of priestly sex abuse, but now she has been canonized in Rome and celebrated "down under."

"Part of what's in a pilgrim's heart is this longing for more in life and the idea of being on a journey," says Randy Haycock, a chaplain at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who leads monthly pilgrimages to Washington National Cathedral for Walter Reed's Warrior Transition Brigade.

There is debate and discussion going on within religious communities about rhetoric, teachings, tolerance and anti-gay sentiments in society.

A new book chronicles the people and places across Africa and Asia where Islam and Christianity meet and often clash.

"In a lot of places where there had been conflict in the name of religion there is now peace in the name of religion, and that's a hopeful sign."

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a prosperity gospel, according to megachurch leader David Platt. It is "a homeless and wounded gospel" about "adversity, persecution, struggles, poverty, and helping one another out."

"I would say to the evangelicals who have joined this movement be careful, you will be used," says Rev. Richard Cizik of the New Evangelical Partnership. "I want a society and a government and its policies to reflect values I find in Scripture, but that’s not what you hear from Tea Party ...

Two religious conservatives offer their views on political involvement, Glenn Beck, evangelical Christianity, and more.

"There is some new energy for religious conservatives that's growing out of the Tea Party," says George Mason University political scientist Mark Rozell, who calls the relationship between the two groups "mutually reinforcing, even though they are not necessarily all the same people."

Should hateful and offensive speech that is religiously motivated be accepted as legitimate public discourse protected by the Constitution?

Gidon Bromberg of Friends of the Earth Middle East says the Jordan River, holy to half of humanity, has become a mixture of sewage water and agricultural runoff unsafe for the pilgrims who come to be baptized in it.

This scholar and Harvard professor became the primary caregiver for his wife after she was afflicted with a neurodegenerative disorder.

"You cannot understand caregiving unless you do it," says Arthur Kleinman. "Acts of caregiving come as close to what I think religion is as I could name."

The temporary dwellings built during the Jewish festival of Sukkot "remind us that in some ways all of life is really temporary, and life is very fragile," says Dani Passow.

A senior researcher at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life says atheists, agnostics, Jews, and Mormons stand out for their knowledge of world religions other than Christianity, while Mormons and evangelical Protestants do best on questions about the Bible and Christianity.

Novelist Allegra Goodman say that entering into the minds of religious people is "a very rich place to be as a writer." Her new book is called "The Cookbook Collector, "and we spoke with her at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC.