In the recent midterm elections, fear and anxiety eclipsed moral reasoning and religious discourse, says Howard University theology professor Harold Dean Trulear.

The Republican Party made significant gains with Catholic voters as well as white Protestants. Did the Democrats give up on religious outreach?

The Republican victories this week were also a victory for the Christian right, says University of West Georgia history professor Daniel K. Williams.

President Obama hosted a November 1 White House meeting with 20 US Christian leaders affiliated with the National Council of Churches and Church World Service.

Steve Krueger, national director of Catholic Democrats, describes Democratic religious outreach this year as "a work in progress."

"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," says one religion writer.

Gay marriage is not a campaign issue in Minnesota, but the Catholic archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis recently sent a message opposing it to every Catholic family in the state. Father David McCauley says it's an effort "to make Catholic people aware of Catholic teaching."

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."

"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 leadership."