The Rev. Richard Cizik is president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good. He seeks to bring evangelical Christians, researchers and policymakers together to work on issues such as climate change, economic justice and national security.

Steve Masters is president of Brit Tzedek v’Shalom Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, an American Jewish organization that, among other things, has pushed the White House, through an Internet petition drive, to get the Palestinians and Israel to negotiate. He was present for the signing of the Geneva Accord and has lived in Israel.

Read a Jan. 28, 2005, Catholic News Service story about a threat by a Jewish group, the Coalition for Jewish Concerns, to sue the Vatican for access to its World War II-era archives.

Cathy Cleaver Ruse is Senior Fellow, Legal Studies at the Family Research Council. Her professional experience spans the fields of communication, public policy and law. She has appeared on PBS’s Firing Line and CNN’s Crossfire. She has published scholarly legal articles on constitutional issues and has filed “friend of the court” briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court. She […]

Mark E. Chopko is an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown Law and an expert on church-state relations. He has been a member of the Board of Scholars of the DePaul Law School’s Center for Church-State Studies, the American Corporate Counsel Association and the National Council of Churches Religious Liberty Committee. He is the author […]

Melissa Rogers is a nonresident senior fellow in governance studies for Brookings, where she specializes in the First Amendment’s religion clauses and religion and faith-related political issues. She previously served as special assistant to President Barack Obama and executive director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Barry Lynn is executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, a lobbying group based in Washington, D.C.

Read a Dec. 21, 2000, Associated Press story posted by the Cincinnati Enquirer about a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that Christmas can continue to be a legal holiday, as it has been since 1870, because it has a secular purpose.

Religioustolerance.com offers a snapshot of the court decisions involving Good Friday holidays.