Barry Lynn is executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, a lobbying group based in Washington, D.C.

Read a Dec. 21, 2000, Associated Press story posted by the Cincinnati Enquirer about a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that Christmas can continue to be a legal holiday, as it has been since 1870, because it has a secular purpose.

Religioustolerance.com offers a snapshot of the court decisions involving Good Friday holidays.

A segment on the website About.com looks at the legal questions surrounding making Good Friday a state holiday.

Read an essay by Karen Maudlin, a psychologist specializing in family therapy, on how to talk to children of different ages about Jesus’ crucifixion.

Read the results of a 15-year longitudinal study released in March 2003 by University of Michigan researchers who found that children’s viewing of violent television shows, their identification with aggressive characters and their perception that TV violence is realistic were linked to later aggression as young adults.

Read a statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics on the impact of violence on children. It states that the average American child watches as much as 28 hours of television a week and that viewing violence can lead to emotional desensitization, to a perception that the world is a mean and violent place, and to children […]

Dennis Martin is an associate professor of theological history at Loyola University in Chicago and an expert on papal history and Pope John Paul II’s life, history and writings.

The Rev. Steven M. Avella is associate professor of history at Marquette University in Milwaukee and an expert on American Catholic history and the history of the American West.