John McCain

McCain was raised in the Episcopalian Church, but for the last 15 years he and his family have been attending North Phoenix Baptist Church, a megachurch in the Southern Baptist Convention.

McCain said his faith helped him to get through the time he spent in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp.

“There were times when I didn’t pray for one more day or one more hour, but I prayed for one more minute,” he said in an October 2007 interview with the Christian Science Monitor. “So I have very little doubt that it was reliance on someone stronger than me that not only got me through, but got me through honorably.”

McCain has said that his wife and two of their seven children have been baptized, but he has not; he called the decision, “a personal thing.” He has also said that he has been in discussion with his pastor, but would not be baptized during the campaign because it would appear insincere.

Joe Biden

Born to Irish-Catholic parents, Biden briefly considered becoming a priest when he was young. He attends Mass at St. Patrick’s Church or St. Joseph on the Brandywine Church, both parishes in the Diocese of Wilmington.

Biden had an hour-long private audience with Pope John Paul II in 1980 on the subject of Poland’s position in the former Communist bloc, and he met the pontiff three other times. He also attended the pope’s funeral in 2005.

Biden has come under fire from others within his denomination because of pro-abortion votes. The bishop of his diocese was pressured to deny him communion, along with other politicians who held views contrary to the Church on the issue; the bishop refused.

Sarah Palin

Palin was baptized a Roman Catholic as an infant, but when she was a teenager, she and her mother began attending Wasilla Assembly of God, where she was re-baptized.

She stopped attending Wasilla Assembly of God in 2002, according to the church’s website. Since then, she has attended a number of churches, including nondemoninational ones. The Palins’ baby, Trig, was recently part of a dedication ceremony at Wasilla Bible Church, a nondenominational, evangelical church.