Mark Allan Powell is a professor of New Testament at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, and the author of Giving to God: The Bible’s Good News About Living a Generous Life.

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).

Read the Oct. 13, 2010, story by CBS News.

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).

Read an Oct. 19, 2010, Council on Foreign Relations interview with John C. Green of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, who says that although voters are primarily concerned about jobs and the economy, they may also feel growing anxiety about Islam and the cultural and ethnic changes in the country.

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.