Melissa Deckman is professor of political science and public affairs at Washington College in Chestertown, Md. Her specialties include religion and politics and women and politics. She wrote School Board Battles: The Christian Right in Local Politics (Georgetown University Press, 2004) and “Christian Right School Board Candidates” for the Encyclopedia of American Religion and Politics (Facts on File, 2003) and […]

The Texas Freedom Network offers a timeline of the battle regarding censorship of school textbooks in Texas.

Read an April 2006 Washington Monthly profile of Randy Brinson, one of the primary advocates of “The Bible and Its Influence.”

The Rev. James Eblen is a professor emeritus in Seattle University’s school of theology and ministry who can speak about the papacy.

The Rev. Robert P. Imbelli is an associate professor emeritus of theology at Boston College and has written and commented widely on the theology and policies of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

Christopher Bellitto is chair of the history department at Kean University in New Jersey, where he has taught a course on the papacy. He has also written many articles on Catholicism and is a regular television commentator on Vatican stories.

The Rev. Joseph A. Komonchak holds the John and Gertrude Hubbard Chair in Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Komonchak has written frequently about Pope Benedict XVI’s thought and theology, and his June 3, 2005, article, “The Church in Crisis: Pope Benedict’s Theological Vision,” in Commonweal magazine was recognized for […]

Steven Leder is a Reform rabbi at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles. He is the author of More Money Than God: Living a Rich Life Without Losing Your Soul (Bonus Books, 2004). Contact via Nan Brostoff.

Rod Parsley is the pastor of World Harvest Church in Canal Winchester, Ohio, and the author of God’s Answer to Insufficient Funds (Harrison House, 1992). He has said people have “sinned” by trying to make others ashamed of the wealth in their lives.