Our resident religion & politics guru Mark Silk assesses the religious layout of 12 battleground states - and explains why religion will matter on Election Day.

(RNS) When Billy Graham embraced Mormonism, he confirmed conservative evangelicals’ worst fears about the 2012 election: That Mitt Romney’s rise would lift his Mormon church to mainstream acceptance. By Daniel Burke. 

WASHINGTON (RNS) The largest slice of Obama’s religious coalition -- at 23 percent --  is not very religious. They’re “nones,” also known as unaffiliated voters, according to a new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute. By Lauren Markoe.

(RNS) Is it a sin not to vote? Or a virtue? Some disappointed Christians on both sides of the aisle -- especially evangelicals and Catholics -- are advocating the merits of boycotting the ballot box on Nov. 6. By David Gibson.

SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) Rather than wait for possible excommunication from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormon blogger David Twede has resigned his membership. By Peggy Fletcher Stack.

(RNS) Billy Graham has been featured in ads supporting a North Carolina anti-gay marriage referendum and supporting “biblical values” in the upcoming national election. Why has the famed evangelist – who has said he learned hard lessons about being too political – getting so involved in the 2012 elections? By Adelle M. Banks.

NEW YORK (RNS) Switching from jabs to jokes, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney set aside an evening between debates to make fun of themselves and each other during one of the few other campaign rituals that brings the candidates together on stage. By Martha T. Moore. 

(RNS) The Romney-Ryan ticket is the first Republican presidential campaign in history without a Protestant candidate, but that hasn't deterred evangelicals from launching massive get-out-the-vote and registration efforts to help win back the White House. By Jackie Kucinich/USA Today. 

(RNS) The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association removed language labeling Mormonism a “cult” from its website after the famed evangelist met with Mitt Romney last week and pledged to help the GOP presidential nominee’s campaign. By Daniel Burke. 

NEW YORK (RNS) A year ago, the Rev. Frank Pavone was facing an existential crisis. Confined to a convent in Texas, the longtime anti-abortion activist was fighting accusations of financial mismanagement. Now Pavone is back with a new mission: defeating Barack Obama and making Priests for Life answerable only to Rome. By David Gibson.

(RNS) Catholicism’s social justice teachings have often been called the church’s "best-kept secret,'' and after Thursday night’s vice-presidential debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan that may still be the case. A question about abortion was the only one linked directly to the candidates’ shared Catholic faith. By David Gibson.

(RNS) Billy Graham offered to "do all I can to help” GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a Thursday (Oct. 11) meeting at the evangelist's North Carolina home. By Adelle M. Banks.

(RNS) A majority of Protestant pastors plan to vote for GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, according to a new survey, but nearly a quarter are still undecided less than four weeks from Election Day. By Daniel Burke.

(RNS) Presidential debates are like first visits to possible in-laws. You hope not to belch at supper -- and then you return to the world where you are actually exploring marriage and building a life. By Tom Ehrich.

(RNS) Conservatives are circulating a 2007 video in which then-presidential candidate Barack Obama praises his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and suggests that racism played a role in the federal government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina. By Daniel Burke.