WordAlone is a Minnesota-based organization that encourages congregations to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America due to its decisions regarding homosexuality.

A Nov. 13, 2007 Washington Post piece on the former governor of Virginia cutting funding for abstinence education programs.

Affirmation is an activist, all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization that challenges the United Methodist Church to be inclusive of LGBTQ people around the world. It is based in Evanston, Ill.

The Reconciling Ministries Network is a movement within the United Methodist Church that works for the inclusion of all people in the UMC regardless of sexual orientation. Contact through director of communications M. Barclay.

Good News, a magazine launched in 1967, represents the vanguard of Methodism’s conservative counteroffensive. It remains a major player in the efforts to limit expanded roles and rights for homosexuals in the UMC. The Rev. Rob Renfroe is its president and publisher. It is based in The Woodlands, Texas.

The Confessing Movement within the United Methodist Church is the leading conservative group of Methodists opposed to gay ordination (and related issues). The Confessing Movement was founded in 1994 and is based in Indianapolis. Patricia Miller is executive director.

A chart from Beliefnet.com, “What do world religions believe about abortion?”

A Sept. 28, 2009 story in The New York Times.

Adele Reinhartz is a Department of Classics and Religious Studies professor at the University of Ottawa and author of Jesus of Hollywood (Oxford University Press, 2007). She specializes in the Bible and film.