Was the Election of 2010 Faith-based?

Read this, from WaPo:

Some numbers and trends that jump out most:
* Catholic voters broke 53 to 45 percent for the GOP, a reversal from 2008, when they supported the Democrats by a 55 to 42 percent margin.

* White Catholics in particular supported the GOP 58 percent to 40 percent; two years ago, they backed the GOP by a narrower 52 to 46 percent margin.

*Republicans also gained the support of 59 percent of Protestants, up six points from 2008 and five points from 2006.

* Republicans also gain more support from white evangelical Protestants. Seventy-seven percent backed the GOP, up from 70 percent in 2008 and 2006. (White born-agains have tended to be more GOP in presidential elections.)

At work in this article is an issue: Does the social conservatism at work in this election also contain or entail a religious conservatism? As I read the article, I see concern by Democrats on this one. About 50% of the Tea Party is evangelical; evangelicalism clearly is not the whole of the Tea Party’s conservatism. The issue is whether or not the conservatism at the economic level will also be at work in moral issues.

What I see in Putnam and Caldwell, a book we are reading, is the increasing connection of politics and faith.