According to Stateline, the news service of the Pew Center on the States, 2012 brought “a near-record number of anti-abortion laws and provisions” at the state level. See other Stateline articles dealing with abortion, as well.

The National Association of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is a Christian organization that focuses on the religious formation of children using the Bible, liturgy and the educational principles of Maria Montessori. It’s based in Oak Park, Ill.

Dorothy C. Bass is director of the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith. This project, funded by the Lilly Endowment and based at Valparaiso University in Indiana, works to develop resources to help people live out the practices of Christian faith with integrity. Bass can speak about teaching children to resist the […]

Scottie May is assistant professor of Christian formation and ministry at Wheaton College in Illinois. Her emphasis is on children’s ministry, and her research includes how children come to faith. She is co-author of Children Matter: Celebrating Their Place in the Church, Family and Community.

Kevin E. Lawson is a professor of Christian education at Talbot School of Theology at Biola University in La Mirada, Calif. He helped organize a national conference in 2003 on children’s spirituality (such conferences are being held every three years) and can speak about trends in children’s ministry.

Marcia McQuitty, an experienced preschool educator, is associate professor of childhood ministry at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Brett Webb-Mitchell, a Presbyterian minister, is founder and director of the School of the Pilgrim in Carrboro, North Carolina, which encourages people to experience pilgrimages and other Christian practices. A former president of the religion division of the American Association on Mental Retardation, Webb-Mitchell is the author of God Plays Piano Too: The Spiritual Lives of […]

Holly Catterton Allen is associate professor of Christian ministries and director of the Children and Family Ministry Program at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Ark. She frequently speaks and writes on children’s spirituality.

Catherine Stonehouse is Orlean Bullard Beeson Professor of Christian Discipleship at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky., and co-author of Children Matter: Celebrating Their Place in the Church, Family and Community.