Trying to balance public health and religious liberty, the Obama administration announced a plan to calm anger over a new rule that would require health insurance plans, including those offered by Roman Catholic hospitals, universities, and charities, to provide free birth control to female employees.

“We don’t want a religious state,” says Muslim Brotherhood member of parliament Ossama Yassin. “We want a modern, civil, democratic state belonging to the people.”

“Our Christian faith,” says David Montague, director of the Memphis Teacher Residency program, “informs our belief that every child can learn.”

"In times when we are not particularly suffering, we do not have enough time for God. We are too busy with other things. And then the intense suffering comes, and we can not be busy with other things. And then God comes into the equation."

“There’s a flaw in human nature, and it’s in all great writing, the tragic flaw... and yet there is the expectation that ultimately it’s going to be okay,” said this beloved author and lay Episcopalian, who described herself as “a writer who is struggling to be a Christian.”

“If we can bring in some light, the darkness will not overcome the light, and that’s where faith is. We believe that,” says Lyn Lusi, who has spent her professional life in medical care for the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“When we say grace we are grateful for the food on our plates. But where did that food travel? Who picked it? How did it get to us? As people of faith we are called to think about that.”

Egypt’s recent parliamentary elections have raised concerns about the imposition of an Islamist agenda by Islamist groups and parties, but Middle East expert Kate Seelye says “the hope is that once in office they will move more to the center and that won’t be the case.”

“Will evangelicals turn out in large numbers and be energized as volunteers and financial supporters of Mitt Romney? It just takes a few million evangelicals to choose to not get as actively involved in this race to cost Mitt Romney the presidency,” according to evangelical journalist Warren Cole Smith.

“Mitt Romney has studiously avoided the subject of religion whenever possible. He’s a technocrat. He’s very careful. He’s highly managed in his public presentation. He knows that bringing up Mormonism conjures a host of associations he’d like to avoid.”