Although the hot topic in the recent presidential election was solving the nation's economic mess, religion continued to be on people's minds. Some of it showed up as the same old red state-blue state divisiveness but there were also some major detours from the well-trod path of spiritual politics.

We had a Christian candidate who was widely believed to be a Muslim (according to a Beliefnet poll, "Half of McCain voters believe Obama is or was a Muslim, with 31.7% saying that 'he used to be Muslim and still has too many connections to Islam.'"). That same candidate reached out on an unprecedented-for-his-party scale to religious voters, but he also accused some people of clinging to "guns and religion" out of fear. Despite such statements, according to a Pew research report, more people think that Barack Obama is "friendlier to religion" (49 percent) than maverick John McCain (45 percent).

We also had a candidate who is Mormon -- and we could not resist quizzing him about sacred underwear and polygamy. We even had an evangelical pit bull who recently said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network that "faith - not just my faith - faith and God in general has been mocked through this campaign."

Whether you feel that faith was scorned or celebrated in this election, now that it's all over may be a good time to review what we've learned. Jim Wallis is the editor and founder of the evangelical magazine Sojourners as well as a blogger, speaker, preacher and the best-selling author of "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It." I asked him how traditional Christians are responding to the recent election and where he thinks we should all go from here.

Both the Obama and the McCain campaigns made considerable efforts to reach out to religious groups in this election. Did that make a difference?

I think the Obama campaign made a very deliberate effort, and it was obviously quite successful. Obama won about 43 percent of weekly churchgoers, eight percent more than John Kerry did in 2004. The main reason why he was successful is because he was clearly perceived as a Christian. He understands religion - he had a personal conversion and talks about it in that way. I don't think the outreach to religious groups would have worked unless he was comfortable talking about his faith.

What about McCain?

McCain isn't a natural part of that [religious] constituency, unlike George Bush was. That's just not who he is. So when he tried to reach out in that direction, it was always more strained, more difficult, more awkward, and when he reached out too hard, too far, too fast, like to [the Rev. Jerry] Falwell or to [the Rev. John C.] Hagee, it seemed like pandering. People didn't think he was really there.