At the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, President Obama said his faith plays a large role in his approach to public policy, including the economy. He quoted scripture to explain why he supports eliminating some tax breaks for the wealthy:

President Barack Obama: I actually think that’s going to make economic sense. But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that “for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.”

The president pointed out that Islam and Judaism have similar teachings.

That same morning in Washington, a group of interfaith clergy associated with the Occupy movement held what they called the People’s Prayer Breakfast. They said their event was open to everyone, not just the rich and powerful, and they prayed for an end to economic inequality.

Religious opposition continued this week to the Obama administration’s recent decision to require all health insurance policies to cover contraception. Houses of worship are exempt from the requirement, but several faith-based groups argued that religiously affiliated organizations like charities and hospitals should be exempt as well. Criticism has been particularly strong from the U.S. Catholic bishops, many of whom wrote letters that were read at Catholic churches around the country. In a particularly stinging letter, the bishop of Pittsburgh said the Obama administration has told Catholics, “To hell with you.”

The contraception controversy became an issue in the ongoing GOP presidential primaries. At recent campaign stops, Newt Gingrich accused President Obama of waging a “war on religion,” especially against the Catholic Church. As for the Catholic vote, in last week’s Florida primary, Mitt Romney, who is Mormon, got 56 percent, while Gingrich got 30 percent of his fellow Catholics. Evangelicals in that race divided their votes almost evenly between Gingrich and Romney. Rick Santorum picked up 19 percent of their votes, and Ron Paul, 4 percent.

Prominent Jewish groups are spearheading an effort to persuade the Obama administration to take stronger action to head off an impending humanitarian disaster in Sudan’s border region. American Jewish World Service and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs said the Sudanese government must allow food aid for hundreds of thousands of people facing starvation in the region between Sudan and the one year-old state of South Sudan. Some 400,000 people have been displaced in ongoing border conflicts.

There’s a debate over whether the Nobel Peace Prize is being awarded to the wrong people. In Oslo, Norway, where the prize is given out, a prominent peace activist says the award has been going to human rights campaigners and environmentalists in violation of the intentions of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. In 1895, he wrote in his will that the prize should go to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations.” The Norwegian critic contends that the last qualified person to get the Peace Prize was then-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2001. President Obama got the prize in 2009.

Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, the former archbishop of Philadelphia, died this week. He was 88 and suffered from dementia and cancer. Bevilacqua led the Philadelphia archdiocese from 1988 to 2003. His death comes amid a high-profile sex abuse case there involving two priests and a church official who served under him.

This weekend (February 4) Muslims celebrate Mawlid an Nabi, marking the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.

For Jews, Wednesday (February 8) is Tu B’shvat, the New Year for Trees. It has become a special day for efforts to protect the environment.