Glen H. Stassen is the Lewis Smeades Professor of Christian Ethics at the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. He is an expert on religion and social justice and specializes in war, peace and ethics. He wrote Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War.

Richard L. Wood is director of the Religious Studies Program at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He wrote the book Faith in Action: Religion, Race, and Democratic Organizing in America (University of Chicago Press, 2002) and contributed the essay “Religion, Faith-Based Organizing, and the Struggle for Justice” for the book Handbook of the Sociology of Religion (Cambridge […]

Royal W.F. Rhodes is professor of religious studies at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. He co-wrote the book Eclipse of Justice: Ethics, Economics, and the Lost Traditions of American Catholicism (Orbis Books, 1992).

Theodore Walker Jr. is associate professor of ethics and society at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He wrote the book Empower the People: Social Ethics for the African-American Church, about African-American resources for a more inclusive liberation theology.  

Harlan Beckley is director of the Shepherd Program for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. He edited the book Economic Justice: Selections from Distributive Justice and a Living Wage (Westminster John Knox Press, 1996).

David Fagelson is associate professor of justice, law and society for the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, D.C. He wrote the article “Rights and Duties: The Ethical Obligation to Serve the Poor” for the journal Law & Inequality (1999).

The Rev. Traci West is professor of ethics and African-American studies at Drew University in Madison, N.J. Among her specialties are welfare policy and justice issues in church and society. She wrote the entry “Agenda for the Churches: Uprooting a National Policy of Morally Stigmatizing Poor Single Black Moms” for the book Welfare Policy: (Feminist Critiques).

Read a statement from the Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch saying the budget worried Ryan’s former parish priest.

Watch a commentary from Word on Fire comparing Ryan’s budget with Catholic social teaching.