As the South Carolina Republican primary approaches and candidate Rick Santorum claims a belated victory in the Iowa caucuses, watch excerpts from a 2010 speech Santorum, a Catholic, delivered on the role of religious faith in public life.

"South Carolina is really shaping up as a make or break last stand for social conservatives," says David Gibson of Religion News Service.

"Many of the old forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind in the Jim Crow era are suddenly legal again once you’ve been branded a felon," says Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow."

Watch more of our conversation with author Michelle Alexander about crime, the war on drugs, and the disproportionately high number of African-Americans in prison.

"When somebody dies in Christ, or dies a Christian, it’s a good thing because he’s going to God. He has died on a good path," says Nii Adei Klu.

"What’s wrong with this picture: 50 miles north of here is possibly the worst human rights situation, including Christian persecution in the entire world, and here we are in South Korea living a lifestyle that’s probably on par with the United States and Europe," says pastor Tim Peters, a missionary in South Korea.

"There seems to be a theme in the album, not intentional, and it’s funny because for somebody who is not a religious person, God comes up a lot in my songs," says legendary singer/songwriter Paul Simon.

The congregation of St. Paul's Episcopal in New Orleans, hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is now helping handicapped children in Haiti, survivors of the earthquake there. "It was clear right away the connection between New Orleans and Haiti," says Rev. Scott Albergate.

We discuss the major religion and ethics stories anticipated in 2012, including religion in the upcoming elections, faith-based activity in the budget debates and immigration policy, key religion cases before the Supreme Court and mainline denominations and issues of homosexuality.

We discuss the major religion and ethics stories of the past year in the U.S. and abroad with Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, Religion News Service editor Kevin Eckstrom and Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly managing editor Kim Lawton.