Read “Why I lead an online synagogue,” an Oct. 4, 2010, column at CNN.com’s Belief Blog by Rabbi Laura Baum, head of OurJewishCommunity.org.

Read a Jan. 21, 2011, news release from LifeWay Research about Protestant congregations using Facebook and other social networking tools. Nearly half of Protestant churches use Facebook, while 40 percent do not use any social networking tools. However, the trend seems to be toward greater adoption of social networking tools.

When is it appropriate to use the words “fundamentalist” and “cult?” What are other terms with which I must be careful? By Don Lattin The San Francisco Chronicle* CULT is a word that should be used with care. Some of its dictionary definitions are value neutral, with such meanings as “formal religious veneration,” such as […]

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is a Christian denomination composed of nearly 10,000 congregations and about 4 million members.

Milagros Peña teaches sociology and directs women’s studies at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Her expertise includes women’s issues, border issues and Hispanic ministry in the United States. Her books include, as co-author, Emerging Voices, Urgent Choices: Essays on Latino/a Religious Leadership (Brill Academic Publishers, 2006).

The Rev. Gary Riebe-Estrella is a Catholic priest and dean emeritus at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, Ill. He can discuss education and placement of clergy, congregational issues, U.S. Latino Catholics, and Mexican popular religion. He co-edited Horizons of the Sacred: Mexican Traditions in U.S. Catholicism (2002).

Benjamin Valentin teaches theology and culture at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre, Mass., where he directs Latino/a studies. He co-chairs the AAR Latina/o Religion, Culture and Society Group. His expertise includes the intersection between Latinos and African-Americans, liberation theology and Hispanic theology. Valentin authored Mapping Public Theology: Beyond Culture, Identity and Difference (Trinity Press International, 2002); […]

One challenge in writing about the Eastern Orthodox is the debate over numbers. A figure often cited is 3 million adherents in the U.S., with about 2 million in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, 1 million in the Orthodox Church in America, and some tens of thousands in the other 20 major Eastern Orthodox churches. In a […]

Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung is a philosophy professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. She is an expert on ethics and has written on virtue and vice. She says organized religion has largely bought into the idea of religion as a private matter – something to be practiced at home and in church, but not necessarily […]