Gleaves Whitney is director of the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., and co-editor of Religion and the American Presidency.

Vincent J. Miller is a professor of Catholic theology at the University of Dayton. Miller is an expert on religion and politics and the Catholic Church’s role in politics and public policy.

Robert Oldendick is a political science professor at the University of South Carolina and director of its Institute for Public Service and Policy Research. He has said that in the general election, the “faith factor” may grab some attention, but it won’t change how people vote.

Charles W. Dunn is Distinguished Professor of Government at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va. He edited The Future of Religion in American Politics (2009).

Susan B. Hansen is a political science professor at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of Religion and Reaction: The Secular Political Challenge to the Religious Right (2011).

Watch a 2007 Boston Globe video about Romney’s Mormonism.

Read an article from the spring 2011 issue of the scholarly journal Religion in the News about how religious practices predict political beliefs.

Read an Aug. 17, 2011, Washington Post blog post about how religion can be used to predict Tea Partiers.

Read an Aug. 22, 2011, Religion News Service story (posted by the Huffington Post) about a disconnect between current trends on religiosity in the U.S. and the injection of religion into politics.