Mainstream Protestantism has declined sharply in the US, but the big speeches of our political leaders still routinely echo the nation's Protestant history.

"I think it's fair to say that Islam has had some difficulty in coming to terms with modernity," says sociologist of religion William Martin, who believes that the Gulen movement "offers a much more positive picture of what Islam can be."

"The most broadly based access to the developing world is through religious people," says the former president of the World Bank, "and so it is a tragedy if they are not embraced in the overall development process."

During decades of war in Sudan, says John Ashworth of Catholic Relief Services, the church was the only institution that stayed on the ground with the people. Now they are voting in the south in a referendum for independence from the Muslim-majority national government in the north.

“We’re looking at long-term changes to make something sustainable here,” says World Vision’s Mary Kate MacIssac. Watch more interviews about the recovery effort and more video of three different church services on a recent Sunday morning in Port-au-Prince.

"Haiti is not dying," says Free Methodist pastor Jean-Marc Zamor one year after the massive earthquake, and faith-based humanitarian aid workers are pressing ahead with relief and reconstruction despite criticism that efforts have fallen short.

On Dec. 14 religious leaders held a prayer summit and Jericho March on Capitol Hill to urge senators to vote for a bill that would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were brought into the country by their parents and who go on to attend college or serve in the military.

Blockades, barriers, and post-election turmoil are preventing faith-based aid groups from safely doing their work.

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?