RELIGIONS & FAITH GROUPS
Reporting on the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, Part Two

For more regional sources, see ReligionLink’s Feb 25, 2008, tip, “Reporting on the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey.”

IN THE NORTHEAST
• Wendy Cadge is an assistant professor of sociology at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. She has written widely about homosexuality and Christianity, especially as it pertains to mainline Protestantism. Contact 781-736-2641, wcadge@brandeis.edu.
• Michele Dillon is a sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. She contributed an article on the afterlife to Contemporary American Religion. She is also an expert on religious attitudes about abortion and wrote “The American Abortion Debate: Culture War or Normal Discourse?” for the book The American Culture Wars: Current Contests and Future Prospects. Contact 781-239-3552, michele.dillon@unh.edu.
• Ian Markham is a professor of theology and ethics and dean of Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn. He is an expert on mainline Christianity and is the author, with the Rev. Martyn Percy of Oxford, of Why Liberal Churches Are Growing (2006). He can discuss mainline Christianity. Contact 860-509-9553, markham@hartsem.edu.
• David M. O’Leary is a Jesuit priest and a senior lecturer in comparative religions and medical ethics at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. He contributed articles on heaven and hell to The Encyclopedia of Religious and Spiritual Development. Contact 617-627-3427, david.oleary@tufts.edu.

IN THE EAST
• Geneive Abdo is the author of Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life in America After 9/11 (2006), which is based on interviews with Muslims and their families across the United States. She is based in New Jersey. Contact through Christian Purdy in the publicity department of Oxford University Press, 212-726-6032 or Christian.purdy@oup.com, or info@geneiveabdo.com.
• Louis Bolce teaches a course on religion and politics at Baruch College in New York City. With Gerald De Maio, also of Baruch College, he has written that the clearest indicator of voting patterns is religious affiliation. Contact 646-312-4416, Louis_Bolce@baruch.cuny.edu.
• Robert Destro is a law professor at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and co-director and founder of the Interdisciplinary Program in Law and Religion. He co-authored, with Michael S. Ariens, Religious Liberty in a Pluralistic Society, the nation’s leading law school textbook on religious liberty. Contact 202-319-5202, destro@law.cua.edu.
• Lewis D. Solomon is a professor of business law at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He is an expert on Jewish spirituality and wrote the book Jewish Spirituality: Revitalizing Judaism for the Twenty-First Century. Contact 202-994-6753, lsolomon@law.gwu.edu.
• Barbara G. Wheeler is the longtime president of Auburn Theological Seminary in New York, a leading Presbyterian seminary. She can discuss the data on mainline Protestants, including on the subjects of homosexuality, abortion and politics. Contact through her assistant, Mercedes Rivera, at 212-662-4315, mvr@auburnsem.org.

IN THE SOUTHEAST
• David R. Blumenthal is a professor of Judaic studies at Emory University in Atlanta. He is an expert on Jewish mysticism and spirituality and can also tackle questions about the Jewish concept of evil. Contact 404-727-7545, reldrb@emory.edu.
• Bill J. Leonard is dean of the divinity school and a professor of church history at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. He is an expert on evangelical Christians, especially Baptists, and contributed articles on heaven and hell to Contemporary American Religion. Contact 336-631-9504, leonabj@wfu.edu.
• Melissa Rogers is a visiting professor of religion and public policy at Wake Forest University Divinity School in Winston-Salem, N.C. She previously served as executive director of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington, D.C. Her expertise includes religion and politics, and separation of church and state. Contact rogersm@wfu.edu.
• June Tangney is a psychology professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. She is co-author of the chapter “A Moral-Emotional Perspective on Evil Persons and Evil Deeds” in The Social Psychology of Good and Evil. Contact 703-993-4051, jtangney@gmu.edu.
• Steven M. Tipton is a professor of the sociology of religion at Emory University in Atlanta. He researches American religion and politics, and the sociology of morality. Contact 404-727-6332, stipton@emory.edu.

IN THE SOUTH
• Jay Geller is an assistant professor of modern Jewish culture and religious studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. Contact 615-353-3968, jay.geller@vanderbilt.edu.
• Charles Lippy teaches philosophy and religion at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, and specializes in American religious history. He wrote Being Religious, American-Style: A History of Popular Religiosity in the United States. Contact 423-425-4340, charles-lippy@utc.edu.
• Wilfred McClay is a history professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He is an expert on evangelical attitudes and beliefs and can address questions about church-state beliefs. Contact 423-425-5202, Bill-McClay@utc.edu.
• Darby Kathleen Ray is an associate professor of religious studies and director of the Millsaps Faith and Work Initiative at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss. She is the editor of Theology That Matters: Ecology, Economy and God (2006). Contact 601-974-1337, raydk@millsaps.edu. 
• Robert B. Stewart is an associate professor of philosophy and theology at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is an expert on American evangelicals. Contact 504-282-4455 ext. 8017, rstewart@nobts.edu.

IN THE MIDWEST
• Laurie Bagby is an associate professor of political science at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan., where she teaches a course on religion and politics. Contact 785-532-0441, lauriej@ksu.edu.
• James B. Martin-Schramm is a professor of religion at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He has written about population, consumption and Christian ethics and about Christian environmental ethics. Contact 563-387-1251, marschja@luther.edu.
• Kenneth Pargament teaches psychology at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, and has researched the psychological dimensions of spirituality. He has written extensively on spirituality and its uses in everyday life. Contact 419-372-8037, kpargam@bgsu.edu.
• Walter Sundberg teaches church history at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., and has written about religion, politics and trends in American religion. Contact 651-641-3270, wsundber@luthersem.edu.
• Paul Allen Williams is an assistant professor in the department of philosophy and religion at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and editor of the Journal of Religion and Film. Contact 402-554-6016, pwilliams@mail.unomaha.edu.

IN THE SOUTHWEST
• Thomas Richard Dunlap is a history professor at Texas A&M University in College Station. He is the author of Faith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious Quest. Contact 979-845-7107, t-dunlap@tamu.edu.
• Barry Hankins is a professor of church-state studies at the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Contact 254-710-4667, barry_hankins@baylor.edu.
• Gregory Kaplan is an assistant professor of Judaic studies at Rice University in Houston. He is an expert on modern Judaism. Contact 713-348-2778, gkaplan@rice.edu.
• Mark G. Toulouse is a professor of American religious history at the Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. He wrote the article “Perspectives on Abortion in the Christian Community From the 1950s to the Early 1990s” for the journal Encounter (2001) and can discuss the trends reflected in the new data on abortion and religion. Contact 817-257-7592, m.toulouse@tcu.edu.
• Jane Vennard is a United Church of Christ pastor and retreat leader. She is the author of Praying With Body and Soul: A Way to Intimacy With God. She lives in Denver. Contact revjev1@aol.com.

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST
• The Rev. Patricia D. Brown is director of Spiritworks, a nonprofit, online resource for the exploration of Judeo-Christian spirituality. She is the author of Paths to Prayer: Finding Your Own Way to the Presence of God. She is based in Seattle. Contact pdbrown@spiritworks.org.
• Paul Burstein is chairman of the Jewish studies program and a professor of sociology at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is an expert on the American Jewish community. Contact 206-543-7088, burstein@u.washington.edu.
• Thomas J. Csordas is a professor of anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. He studies comparative religion and cultural phenomenology and took part in the 2004 Templeton symposium on the Holy Spirit in contemporary America. He can address questions about divine healing and other beliefs. Contact 858-534-4145, tcsordas@ucsd.edu.
• Bruce Phillips is a professor of Jewish communal service at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, a leading seminary of the Reform movement. He was on the team that completed the National Jewish Population Survey 2000. Contact bphillips@huc.edu.
• John E. Seery is a professor of politics at Pomona College in Pomona, Calif. He is an expert on abortion politics and wrote an article titled “Moral Perfectionism and Abortion Politics” for the journal Polity (2001). Contact 909-607-2458, John_Seery@pomona.edu.