David Gutterman is an associate professor of politics at Willamette University in Salem, Ore., where he teaches a course on religion and politics. Gutterman co-edited the book Religion, Politics and American Identity: New Directions, New Controversies.

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.

Read a July 18, 2010, story in the Tulsa World about State Question 755 on Oklahoma’s November 2010 ballot.

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).

At the website of The New Republic, James Downie critiques that view in a Sept. 3, 2010, post.

This Sept. 2, 2010, essay at the website of the Heritage Foundation sounded the alarm about a New Jersey case that author Cully Stimson argued is evidence that “Sharia-loving extremists are determined to establish an Islamic Caliphate around the world, especially in America.”

In September 2010 the Center for Security Policy released this report that called Islamic law “the preeminent totalitarian threat of our time.”