Kenneth Pennington holds the Kelly-Quinn Chair of Ecclesiastical and Legal History at the Catholic University of America and is an expert in church history and canon law. He has written extensively about the papacy.

A Nov. 17, 2008, report from the Britain-based website Ekklesia notes that one in four young people from across all religions have been bullied because of their religious beliefs.

See an April 16, 2010, article on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s site about some Christians’ concerns that efforts to highlight harassment of LGBT students, such as the “Day of Silence” observed at some schools, are essentially attempts to promote gay rights.

Read an Aug. 29, 2010, Denver Post article about Focus on the Family’s objection to anti-bullying programs that it says promote homosexuality and portray conservative Christians as bigoted.

Read a Sept. 8, 2010, Huffington Post column by U.S. Sen. Robert Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, criticizing Focus on the Family for opposing a bill he introduced that would combat bullying.

BullyingNoWay.com is an Australian website that has resources on combating bullying.

Forty-nine states have anti-bullying laws, according to Bully Police USA, a watchdog organization composed of parents.

Nearly a third of students in the sixth to 10th grades said in 2008 that they had either bullied students or been bullied, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and after physical appearance, homosexuality is considered the prime factor in bullying.

Focus on the Family recently launched True Tolerance, which aims to give Christians resources for responding to “homosexual advocacy” in schools. See a report on True Tolerance.