Clay Farris Naff, 2/8/12

Science writer, journalist, author

When President Obama used the occasion of the National Prayer Breakfast to say that for the fortunate to pay a little more to help the less fortunate "coincides" with Jesus' teachings, he must have touched a nerve.

Eli Beer, 2/9/12

Founder of United Hatzalah of Israel

Very few people in the world will ever have the chance to experience an "interfaith moment" quite like mine. There I stood in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum with three smiling new friends from the four corners of the earth.

Fred Rotondaro, 2/9/12

Senior Fellow, the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC.

Bishops have urged Catholics to be single issue voters -- that issue being of course the sexual politics of an anti-abortion and anti-gay rights agenda. The century-old Catholic social justice tradition in America has been pushed to the side.

Menachem Rosensaft, 2/9/12

Professor of law and son of Holocaust survivors

It remains to be seen whether Zitelman and others at Save a Torah who kept their heads in the sand long after evidence of Youlus' fraudulent scheme had become incontrovertible will ever offer a public apology for their role in this abomination.

Karen Torjesen, 2/9/12

Margo L. Goldsmith Professor of Women’s Studies in Religion

HIV/AIDS in Africa carries a woman's face. Women are nearly twice as susceptible to HIV infection as men. Why?

David Van Biema, 2/8/12

Author, 'Speaking to God: A Cultural History of the Psalms'

Psalm 90 builds to a petition to God: not to reduce our sentences, but to make sense of them: "teach us to number our days, that we may gain a wise heart."

Reverend William E. Flippin, Jr., 2/9/12

Shepherd/Servant Leader and Advocate for the Poor

I am hopeful that based on the efforts of church planting in the major cities of New York even in alternative life-style communities is a sign that the Southern Baptist Convention is reassessing its policies of exclusion.

Joan E. Dowlin, 2/9/12

Musician

A friend who had called him on the phone and vigorously tried to convert him to Jesus so he would not go to hell asked me, "Aren't you worried about his soul?"

Brad Hirschfield, 2/9/12

Rabbi, Author and Expert on Religion and Public Life

Are clergy and teachers of religious faith/thought public servants? Is their work on par with that of others who work for 501c3 non-for-profit groups and for government agencies? The federal government has changed its mind about that.

Rev. Debra Haffner, 2/8/12

Executive Director, the Religious Institute

Today, I am pleased to be one of 23 national mainstream religious leaders who affirm the White House decision.

Imam Abdullah Antepli, 2/8/12

Muslim Chaplain, Duke University

As we are now in the season of our next presidential election, anti-Muslim sentiments uttered by our political, religious and civic leaders are becoming more and more mainstream and systemic.

Arvind Sharma, 2/8/12

Birks Professor of Comparative Religion, McGill University

When the relationship between the religious and the secular is such as involves the complete dominance of one over the other, then it results in the curtailment of both religious and political freedoms.

Jeremy John, 2/8/12

Christian Social Activist

God is asking for the fast that moves beyond prayer and the negation of food to reform our economic relationships of injustice, to undo the cords of oppression.

Robert P. Jones, Ph.D., 2/8/12

CEO and Founder, Public Religion Research Institute

Polling on same-sex marriage reveals that the changing landscape challenges some common stereotypes about religion and the issue of same-sex marriage. Last year was the first on record where supporting same-sex marriage was not a minority position.

Gabe Lyons, 2/7/12

Founder of Q: Ideas For the Common Good

Eleven years ago this week, Rebekah and I celebrated the birth of our first-born. Despite his Down syndrome diagnosis, we were overjoyed to welcome this new life into our family.

Paul Wilkes, 2/7/12

Author, "The Art of Confession"

Call up in your mind a person who has helped you or with whom you feel a deep kinship. Wish them well, send beams of light and good wishes into their lives.

Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, 2/7/12

Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life

We should let our workers rest from their labors; and the Earth should be allowed to rest, too. Social, spiritual and ecological sustainability intertwine.