Written by Bill Cooke. Cooke provides a reference for key concepts, terms, and developments in the atheist, secularist, and humanist movements.

Ched Myers is a leader in the Sabbath Economics Collaborative, a group of theologians, educators and activists who work for economic justice. He is also co-founder and program director of Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries in Oak View, Calif.

Maisha Itia Handy is a womanist scholar and assistant professor of Christian education at the Interdenominational Theological Seminary in Atlanta. She is also minister of Christian education at First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta.

Claudine Michel chairs the department of black studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She edits The Journal of Haitian Studies and co-edited (with Patrick Bellegarde-Smith) two books on Vodou, Haitian Vodou: Spirit, Myth, And Reality (Indiana University Press, 2006) and Invisible Powers: Vodou in Haitian Life and Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).

Mozella Gordon Mitchell is professor and chairwoman of religious studies at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Her expertise includes Afro-Caribbean religions and the history of African-American religion.

What may houses of worship do to advance political causes or candidates? By Ira Rifkin Freelance Writer The Church at Pierce Creek was a non-denominational, conservative Protestant congregation outside Binghamton, N.Y., until the Internal Revenue Service revoked its tax-exempt status for sponsoring a 1992 newspaper ad attacking then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton’s stands on abortion and […]

Richard A. Merrill is Daniel Caplin Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Virginia Law School in Charlottesville. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and is editor and author of multiple books on food and drug law.

Dr. Michael Grodin is professor of health law, bioethics and human rights at Boston University School of Public Health and a clinical medical ethicist for Boston Medical Center.

Dr. Jerome Groopman is the Dina and Raphael Recanati Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chief of Experimental Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and one of the world’s leading researchers in cancer and AIDS. Contact Dr. Groopman through his website.