Read a Dec. 5, 2011 Patheos column in which the author writes about her fascination with Mary.

Richard B. Wilke is a retired United Methodist Bishop and the author of Christmas: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (August 2010), an Advent study focusing on Herod, the shepherds and others from the Christmas story.

Rich Nathan is pastor of Vineyard Church of Columbus in Westerville, Ohio, a congregation of 10,000 that includes members who came from 75 different countries. He has said he’s seen how the immigration system can separate families or prevent them from visiting sick or dying relatives.

Arnold M. Eisen is a religion professor at Stanford University in California. He co-wrote the book The Jew Within: Self, Family and Community in America (Indiana University Press, 2000). The book looks at the results of surveys Eisen and his co-author conducted with American Jews. The book states that American Jews are less attached to Israel and […]

David S. Ariel is president of the Laura and Alvin Siegal College of Judaic Studies in Cleveland. He wrote the book Spiritual Judaism: Restoring Heart and Soul to Jewish Life (Hyperion, 1998).

Rabbi Heather Altman, a Conservative rabbi, is a spiritual director, teacher, yoga instructor and healer based in Chicago.

Rabbi Aryeh Azriel of Temple Israel in Omaha, Neb., a Reform synagogue, leads the Spiritual Working Group on Leadership for Synagogue 3000.

Read a June 13, 2007, New York Times story about an African-American congregation in Mamaroneck, N.Y., that serves as an official hiring site for largely Hispanic day laborers. One expert says very few of the nation’s hiring sites are associated with African-American churches.

Read a March 21, 2010, Huffington Post column on whether the black church supports immigration reform.