What may houses of worship do to advance political causes or candidates? By Ira Rifkin Freelance Writer The Church at Pierce Creek was a non-denominational, conservative Protestant congregation outside Binghamton, N.Y., until the Internal Revenue Service revoked its tax-exempt status for sponsoring a 1992 newspaper ad attacking then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton’s stands on abortion and […]

Nicole Ravenell Edwards is president and CEO for the Southern Institute on Children and Families, based in South Carolina but with affiliates throughout the South. The institute is a nonprofit organization that works with business leaders to try to improve children’s quality of life, including access to health care. Ravenell is a public policy expert.

Claire Brindis is a professor in the departments of pediatrics and obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences and director of the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco.

Michele Rivkin-Fish is associate professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. She studies health and gender issues related to development.

Otis Moss III is pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. He espouses Black theology and advocates efforts to reach Black youth in the city. A poet, he wrote Redemption in a Red Light District: Messages of Hope, Healing, and Empowerment.

The Rev. Al Sharpton was a child preacher and was ordained as a minister at age 10. He has been organizing for social justice causes since he was a teenager and has run for U.S. Senate, for mayor of New York and for president of the U.S. He is host of The Al Sharpton Show, a radio talk show. […]

Read a brief history and review of scholarly surveys on community outreach by black churches, by John J. DiIulio Jr. at the Manhattan Institute Web site.

The Rev. Nathan D. March created a social network site for Prince of Peace Catholic High School Youth Ministry of Lewiston, Maine, using Ning.com.

Sybil W. Coleman is a professor of social work at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., and co-author of a 2009 study, “Pulling Off the Mask: The Impact of Social Networking Activities on Evangelical Christian College Students.”