A.W. Richard Sipe is a former priest who is also a psychotherapist and leading researcher on issues relating to clergy and sexuality. He is a widely cited commentator and the author or co-author of several books on the topic, including Sex, Priests and Secret Codes: The Catholic Church’s 2,000-Year Paper Trail of Sexual Abuse. He lives in […]

Joseph Chinnici is a Franciscan friar and professor of history at the Franciscan School of Theology, which is affiliated with the University of San Diego. He is the author of When Values Collide: The Catholic Church, Sexual Abuse and the Challenges of Leadership.

See a June 4, 2010, roundup by Christianity Today of Christian activist groups’ reactions to the crisis. That roundup includes: Ken Blackwell of the Family Research Council blamed the Obama administration for weak leadership in the Middle East; Jim Rice, editor of Sojourners, said the crisis would not end until Israel’s blockade of Gaza and its “illegal occupation” of Palestinian territory ended

Read a June 2, 2010, Catholic News Service story about Pope Benedict XVI’s criticism of the Israeli raid and his call for world leaders to seek just solutions for the people of Gaza.

Read a June 4, 2010, TIME magazine story, “One Year After Cairo: Obama and the Muslim World,” that cites a May 27, 2010, Gallup survey, “Some Arab Countries Make U-Turn on U.S. Leadership in 2010.”

The Washington Post’s “On Faith” blog hosted a June 7, 2010 forum of posts from a variety of faith perspectives on the theme “Struggling for the moral high ground in Gaza.”

The Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies is an organization of statisticians and researchers who collect and publish information about American denominations and faith groups. Every 10 years they publish the Religious Congregations Membership Study, the last of which appeared in 2010.

American Piety in the 21st Century, an extensive survey of beliefs and practices released in 2006, was conducted by the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion. This study counted one-third of Americans as evangelicals, compared with the Pew study’s one-fourth. It numbered the unaffiliated at 10.8 percent, much lower than the new Pew study and the […]

William Swatos Jr. is executive director of the Religious Research Association, a group of academic and religious professionals that applies scientific research methods to the study of religion. It is a project of the Hartford Seminary. He is located in Illinois.