Shahed Amanullah
As editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com, Shahed Amanullah is an award-winning journalist who writes regularly about the challenges and opportunities facing Islam in America. Named one of ten "Muslim visionaries" by Islamica Magazine, Shahed's work and writings have been featured in magazines (Newsweek), newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune), radio shows (BBC News, National Public Radio, and major websites (BeliefNet.com). Television appearances include "Nightline with Ted Koppel", CNN Headline News, the "Today Show", and "Hannity & Colmes".
Shahed is the founder of Halalfire Media, a network of Islamic-themed websites with nearly 6 million visitors annually. Along with altmuslim.com, signature properties include zabihah.com, salatomatic.com, halalapalooza.com, and unitedmuslims.org. He has also served as a board member for the United Muslims of America, the Muslim Public Service Network, and the Muslim Youth Camp of California. He is a general partner in Zakat Community Ventures, a startup "venture philanthropy" fund dedicated to promoting Islamic charitable values.
Paul Raushenbush
Rev. Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch’s book Christianity and the Social Crisis – In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.
David Gibson
DAVID GIBSON is an award-winning religion journalist, author, filmmaker, and a convert to Catholicism. He came by all those vocations by accident, or Providence, during a longer-than-expected sojourn in Rome in the 1980s.
Gibson began his journalistic career as a walk-on sports editor and columnist at The International Courier, a small daily in Rome serving Italy's English-language community. He then found a job as a newscaster and writer across the Tiber at the English Programme at Vatican Radio, an entity he describes as a cross between NPR and Armed Forces Radio for the pope. The Jesuits who ran the radio were charitable enough to hire Gibson even though he had no radio background, could not pronounce the name "Karol Wojtyla," and wasn't Catholic. Time and experience overcame all those challenges, and Gibson went on to cover dozens of John Paul II's overseas trips, including papal visits to Africa, Europe, Latin America and the United States.
When Gibson returned to the United States in 1990 he returned to print journalism to cover the religion beat in his native New Jersey for two dailies. He worked first for The Record of Hackensack, and then for The Star-Ledger of New Jersey, winning the nation's top awards in religion writing at both places. In 1999 he won the Supple Religion Writer of the Year contest, and in 2000 he was chosen as the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year. Gibson is a longtime board member of the Religion Newswriters Association and he is a contributor to ReligionLink, a service of the Religion Newswriters Foundation.
Since 2003, David Gibson has been an independent writer specializing in Catholicism, religion in contemporary America, and early Christian history. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Boston Magazine, Commonweal, America, The New York Observer, Beliefnet and Religion News Service. He has produced documentaries on early Christianity for CNN and other networks and has traveled on assignment to dozens of countries, with an emphasis on reporting from Europe and the Middle East. He is a frequent television commentator and has appeared on the major cable and broadcast networks. He is also a regular speaker at conferences and seminars on Catholicism, religion in America, and journalism.
Gibson's first book, The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are Shaping a New American Catholicism (HarperSanFrancisco), was published in 2003 and deals with the church-wide crisis revealed by the clergy sexual abuse crisis. The book was widely hailed as a "powerful" and "first-rate" treatment of the crisis from "an academically informed journalist of the highest caliber."
His second book, The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World (HarperSanFrancisco), came out in 2006 and is the first full-scale treatment of the Ratzinger papacy--how it happened, who he is, and what it means for the Catholic Church. The Rule of Benedict has been praised as "an exceptionally interesting and illuminating book" from "a master storyeller."
Born and raised in New Jersey, David Gibson studied European history at Furman University in South Carolina and spent a year working on Capitol Hill before moving to Italy. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter and is working on a book about conversion, and on several film and television projects.
Renita Weems
Dr. Renita J. Weems is a nationally-renowned theologian and an ordained elder in the African Methodist Church whose scholarly insights into modern faith, biblical texts, and the role of spirituality in everyday lives have made her a much sought after author and speaker. Dr. Weems, formerly a member of the faculty of Vanderbilt Univeristy and Spelman College, has been celebrated by Ebony Magazine as one of America's top 15 preachers.
She is founder of Something Within, a consulting service providing guidance for women of faith interested in connecting with their inner wisdom as well as interested in balancing faith and work, and their values with their vocation.
Dr. Weems is a popular radio and television personality, regularly providing expert commentary on religion, gender, race, and sexuality. A guest speaker for numerous national gatherings of religious, civic, and sorority organizations, local churches, community wide events, and radio and television programs, Dr. Weems is in much demand as a speaker, preacher, and workshop leader. Ebony Magazine named her one of America's top 15 Her work as a scholar and a religious thinker has led to invitations to serve as a panelist for Bill Moyer's 1995 PBS award-winning Genesis Project, for various A&E, BBC, National Public Radio, the Michael Baisden radio show, and Hallmark cable programs on topics as wide ranging as miracles in the Bible, women, violence, and spirituality, and male-female relationships. She appeared on "FlashPoints" with Bryant Gumbel and Gwen Ifill to discuss matters related to religion and public life.
Dr. Renita Weems is the author of several widely acclaimed books on women's spirituality and wholeness: Just A Sister Away (1987) and I Asked for Intimacy (1993), Showing Mary: How Women Can Share Prayers, Wisdom, and the Blessings of God (2003), and, more recently, What Matters Most: Ten Passionate Lessons from the Song of Solomon (2004). Her special talent is in drawing life inspirational wisdom from stories in the Bible about the triumphs and failures of ordinary people. A former contributing writer to Essence Magazine back in the late 80's, she has recently renewed her relationship with Essence with an article appearing in the December 2004 issue entitled "Sanctified and Suffering."
Dr. Weems writes a popularly bi-monthly e-column for www.beliefnet.org which focuses on matters of love and relationships. She has been particularly active lately speaking to professional women's organizations about women's spiritual values and support systems, juggling family and work, work and love, and women finding a balance between their spiritual values and their professional aspirations.
She taught from 1987-2004 on the divinity faculty at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN as a professor of Hebrew Bible. She served in 2003-2005 as the William and Camille Cosby Professor of Humanities at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.
Ordained an elder in the AME tradition, Dr. Weems has written about the waxing and waning of faith all believers endure on the spiritual journey. Her 1999 book Listening for God: A Minister's Journey through Silence and Doubt (Simon & Schuster) won the Religious Communicators' Council's prestigious 1999 Wilbur Award for excellence in communicating spiritual values to the secular media. She earned her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and her Master and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey.
Finally, Dr. Renita Weems lives in Nashville, TN with her husband and daughter. Her readers can keep up with Dr. Weems by visiting her her blog, SomethingWithin.com, which allows her to keep in touch with readers interested in exploring women's values and interested in conversations about faith, love, values, and inner wisdom, and other topics of interest to what Dr. Weems likes to call "thinking women of faith."
Tony Campolo
Tony Campolo is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. He previously served for ten years on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Eastern College and earned a Ph.D. from Temple University. Founder and President of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education (EAPE), Dr. Campolo has worked to create, nurture and support programs for “at-risk” children in cities across North America, and has helped establish schools and universities in several developing countries. Dr. Campolo is a media commentator on religious, social and political matters, having guested on television programs like The Colbert Report, Nightline, Crossfire, Politically Incorrect, The Charlie Rose Show, Larry King Live, CNN Dayside, CNN News and MSNBC News. He co-hosted his own television series, Hashing It Out, on the Odyssey Network, and presently hosts Across The Pond, a weekly program on the Premier Christian Radio Network in England. He is also a highly respected and sought after guest on radio stations across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. He is the author of 35 books, with the latest releases in February 2008, Red Letter Christians, A Citizen’s Guide to Faith and Politics (Regal), and July 2007, The God of Intimacy and Action (Jossey-Bass). His other recent titles are Letters to a Young Evangelical (Basic Books),.Speaking My Mind, Which Jesus (W Publishing Group), Everybody Wants to Change the World, Practical Ideas for Social Justice (Co-authored by Gordon Aeschliman, Regal), Adventures in Missing the Point (Co-authored by Brian McLaren, Zondervan), The Church Enslaved (Co-authored by Michael Battle, Fortress Press), Let Me Tell You a Story: Life Lessons From Unexpected Places and Unlikely People (W Publishing Group), The Survival Guide for Christians on Campus (Co-authored by Will Willimon, Howard), Revolutions and Renewal (Westminster John Knox Press), Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God (W Publishing Group) just to name a few. Dr. Campolo is an ordained minister, has served American Baptist Churches in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and is presently recognized as an associate pastor of the Mount Carmel Baptist Church in West Philadelphia. Dr. Campolo and his wife, Peggy, live in the Philadelphia area and have two grown children and four grandchildren.
Randall Balmer
Randall Balmer, an Episcopal priest, is Professor of American Religious History at Barnard College, Columbia University, and a Visiting Professor at Yale Divinity School. He is the author of a dozen books, including "Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America" and, most recently, "God in the White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush."
Chloe Breyer
An associate minister at St. Mary's Manhattanville in West Harlem, the Rev. Chloe Breyer is an Episcopal Priest and author of The Close: A Young Woman's First Year at Seminary (Basic Books 2000). From 2000-2003, she founded and directed the Cathedral Forums on Religion and Public Life at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Following 9/11/2001, she worked with the Diocese of New York on a interfaith initiative to rebuild a mosque in Afghanistan destroyed by U.S. bombs and traveled to Afghanistan in 2003, 2004, and 2006 for two additional faith-based aid projects. A board member of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation, Breyer has worked with the US Campaign for the Millennium Development Goals to raise awareness about the MDGs among American religious leaders of different traditions. Her recent publications include chapter contributions to What Can One Person Do? Faith to Heal a Broken World (Church Publishing 2005) and Challenging the Christian Right From the Heart of the Gospel (Beacon Press 2006). Breyer also writes for Slate Magazine’s faith-based column and has is currently pursuing her Ph. D. in Christian Ethics with a focus on religion and conflict resolution at Union Theological Seminary.
Sister Joan Chittister
Joan Chittister has been one of the church’s key visionary voices and spiritual leaders for more than thirty years. A Benedictine Sister of Erie, PA, Sister Joan is an international lecturer and award-winning author of more than 40 books.
She is the founder and executive director of Benetvision.: a resource and research center for contemporary spirituality located in Erie.
Currently she serves as co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, a partner organization of the UN, facilitating a worldwide network of women peace builders, particularly in Israel and Palestine. In March 2008 she was an organizer of “Making Way for the Feminine for the Benefit of the World Community,” a conference held in Jaipur, India.
She is the co-chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives with Rabbi Michael Lerner and Cornel West.
In April 2005, her commentary from Rome on the month-long papal events was aired on CNN, the BBC and all national US media networks. On Easter Sunday 2006, she was a guest on “Meet the Press with Tim Russert” and in 2004, she was a guest of “NOW with Bill Moyers.”
A regular columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, Sister Joan has received numerous awards and recognition for her work for justice, peace and equality, especially for women in the Church and in society.
Eight of her books have received awards from the Catholic Press Association, including a First Place Award in 2008 for Welcome to the Wisdom of the World (Eerdmans). Her most recent book, The Gift of Years: growing older gracefully(BlueBridge 2008) has been a consistent best seller since its release. Her 1990 book on monastic spirituality, Wisdom Distilled From the Daily, (Harper) is considered a classic in contemporary spirituality
Sister Joan has appeared with the Dali Lama at the First Emory (University) Summit of Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding last October and at Seeds of Compassion in April 2008. She attended the Fourth UN Conference of Women in Beijing and the 1999 Parliament of World Religions in Cape Town, South Africa.
In 1996 she was an invited fellow and research associate at St. Edmund's College, Cambridge University. In 2001 she held the Brueggeman Chair of Ecumenical Theology at Xavier University. She was a member, from 2003-06, of the international and inter-religious Niwano Peace Foundation in Tokyo who award the prestigious annual Niwano Peace Prize.
She has served as president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, (an organization of the leaders/superiors of the over 67,000 Catholic religious women in the US), president of the Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses (1974-90), and was prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie for 12 years. Sister Joan received her doctorate from Penn State University in speech communications theory.
Forrest Church
After serving almost three decades as Senior Minister, Forrest Church is now Minister of Public Theology of All Souls. He was educated at Stanford University (A.B., 1970), Harvard Divinity School (M.Div., 1974), and Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. in Early Church History (1978).
Dr. Church, who is 59 years old, has written or edited 24 books, including: Father and Son: A Personal Biography of Senator Frank Church of Idaho (Harper & Row, 1985); Our Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism (Beacon, 1989); God and Other Famous Liberals (Simon and Schuster, 1991); Life Lines (Beacon 1996); Lifecraft (Beacon, 2000); Bringing God Home (St. Martins, 2002); The American Creed (St. Martins, 2002) and Freedom From Fear (St. Martins 2004). Recently he has been focusing on the history of church and state in America as editor of The Separation of Church and State (Beacon, 2004) and author of So Help Me God: The Founding Fathers and the First Great Battle over Church and State (Harcourt, 2007). Beacon Press recently released Love and Death-My Journey Through the Valley of the Shadow in June of 2008.
Among other works, he is editor of The Essential Tillich (University of Chicago, 1999); The Macmillan Books of Earliest Christian Prayers and Meditations (1988-1989); One Prayer At a Time (Collier, 1989); Thomas Jefferson's Bible (Beacon, 1989) and Restoring Faith: America's Religious Leaders Answer, Terror with Hope (Walker, 2001).
For two years (1987-88), Dr. Church wrote a weekly column for the Chicago Tribune; fifty of these columns are collected in Everyday Miracles: Stories From Life (Harper and Row, 1988). He served two terms at Dartmouth College as Montgomery Fellow and visiting professor (spring/summer 1989).
Eight of his addresses have been selected for inclusion in the annual anthology Representative American Speeches (Wilson & Co.): "Love and Death" (1983-1984); "Terrorism" (1986-1987); "Chariots of Fire" (1987-1988); "If I Were A Woman" (1989-1990); "Shall We Overcome?" (1992-1993); "The American Creed" (1994-1995); "Fear and Terror" (1994-1995); and "September Song" (1996-1997). "Fear and Terror" is also included in Representative American Speeches1937-1997 (Wilson & Co., 1997). Dr. Church's 1988 interview with Bill Moyers is included in A World of Ideas (Doubleday, 1989).
Dr. Church is also a member of the Executive Board at the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. He recently retired as Chair of the Council on the Environment of New York City after ten years of service (appointed by Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg) overseeing, among other programs, New York's 50 Greenmarkets.
He is married to Carolyn Buck Luce and has four children, Frank (29), Nina (26), Jacob (23), and Nathan (21).
Lama Surya Das
Lama Surya Das has spent more than 35 years studying with the great spiritual masters of Asia, including 15 in India and and Himalayas and another eight years in a cloistered Tibetan retreat, and has brought many Tibetan lamas to North America to teach. He is a leading spokesman for American Buddhism and contemporary spirituality, as well as a poet, translator, chantmaster, spiritual teacher, and a lama in the Tibetan Buddhist order. Surya leads meditation retreats and workshops and lectures worldwide.
Founder and spiritual director of the Dzogchen Center in Massachusetts, New York, Texas and California, he organized the first three the Western Buddhist Teachers Network weeklong conferences with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. Surya is the author of a dozen books, including the best-seller "Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Modern World," and has long been active in charitable causes in the Third World and in interfaith dialogue. His new book is called "Words of Wisdom" (Koa Press). A longtime columnist at Beliefnet.com, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Ray Flynn
Raymond L. Flynn is a best selling author, writer and national public speaker. He is a regular political commentator and is also a frequent political and religious analysts on national and local television, including, Meet the Press, Nightline, ABC, NBC, CTV, PBS Jim Leher News Hour, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, EWTN, BBC, CBS News and many other national newspaper, magazine and radio programs. He has been praised as one of the most insightful and foremost experienced political - religious analysts in the United States.
As U.S. Ambassador, Flynn served as America's Envoy to the Vatican, the government of the worldwide Catholic Church. He has also been selected by both Democratic and Republican U.S. Presidents to represent our country at official Vatican events. On behalf of the United States, he assisted the Vatican in the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the Vatican and the State of Israel. He also represented the U.S. efforts that helped win Vatican support for the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, for U.N. peace-keeping efforts in the Balkans, and for U.S.-backed efforts to restore democracy in Haiti. While Ambassador, Flynn also served as the United States representative in relief efforts around the world and helped establish a compact between the U.S. government and the Catholic Church with other religious and non-profit organizations to deliver humanitarian aid to countries suffering from natural disasters, famine, disease, and political unrest.
Flynn was first elected Mayor of Boston in 1984, and won reelection twice each time by record margins. In 1991, he won every ward and percent in the city, the first mayor to achieve that distinction in the history of the city of Boston. As mayor, Flynn's day-to-day involvement in the life of the city, his tireless energy and hands-on style led him to be called the "Mayor of the Neighborhoods." He was widely credited with ensuring that all the people of Boston's neighborhoods shared the prosperity of the city's downtown and led efforts to achieve a new sprit of racial harmony to Boston. By the time he left office, a newspaper poll showed that his favorability rating was nearly 80% - and that almost half of the city's residents had actually met him.
Prior to serving as Mayor of Boston, Flynn served as a Massachusetts State Representative (1971-1978) and an at-large member of the Boston City Council (1978-1983). He is a graduate of Providence College where he was a Dean's List Student, an Academic All-American basketball player, and the Most Valuable Player in the National Initiation Tournament. He was the last player cut by the world champion Boston Celtics in 1964. In 2000, he was voted South Boston's Greatest Athlete of the Century and one of the best all around high school athletics to come out of Boston. Following a tour of duty in the U.S. Army, he worked as a teacher, coach and probation officer before entering politics.
Flynn has written two inspiring books. His first book, a best seller, The Accidental Pope,(which he wrote with author Robin Moore) published by St. Martins Press. The second book is a non-fiction, John Paul II, The Pope and The Man. ,( He has written many articles for national publications.
Flynn has a Masters Degree in Education from Harvard University and an honorary doctorate degree from a number of institutions of higher learning.
Welton Gaddy
Rev. Dr. Welton Gaddy, leads the national nonpartisan grassroots and educational organizations, The Interfaith Alliance and The Interfaith Alliance Foundation and serves as the Pastor for Preaching and Worship at Northminster (Baptist) Church in Monroe, Louisiana. Rev. Gaddy is the host of State of Belief, a weekly radio show by The Interfaith Alliance that is carried on AirAmerica. State of Belief is based on the proposition that religion has a positive and healing role to play in the life of the nation. Rev Gaddy is one of 20 international religious leaders on the Council of 100 Leaders, a group created by the World Economic Forum to improve dialogue and understanding between the Western and Islamic worlds.
In addition to being the author of over 20 books, Welton provides regular commentary to the national media on issues relating to religion and politics. Some of his appearances include CNN Presents: The Fight Over Faith; PBS's NOW with Bill Moyers; PBS Frontline's The Jesus Factor; PBS's The Newshour with Jim Lehrer; NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw; CBS Evening News with Dan Rather; ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings; numerous National Public Radio stations including KQED's Forum in San Francisco and KCRW's The Politics of Culture in Los Angeles; CNBC's Capital Report; CNN's The World Today with Wolf Blitzer; CNN's Inside Politics with Judy Woodruff; PBS's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly; CBS's Freedom to Pray; C-SPAN's Washington Journal; NBC's Dateline. He is the former host of Morally Speaking on NBC affiliate KTVE in Monroe, Louisiana.
Founded in 1994, The Interfaith Alliance (TIA) has grown into a national grassroots organization of 150,000+ individuals of faith and goodwill drawn from more than 75 different religious traditions or beliefs with a cyber-network of 10,000 activists and 75 local activist groups. Dedicated to promoting mutual respect, cooperation and civility, TIA strives to promote religion as a positive and healing force in the life of the nation.
While ministering to churches with a message of inclusion, Welton emerged as a leader among progressive and moderate Baptists. Among his many leadership roles, he is the immediate past President of the Alliance of Baptists and is a twenty-year member of the Commission of Christian Ethics of the Baptist World Alliance. His past leadership roles include serving as a member of the General Council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, President of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Chair of the Pastoral Leadership Commission of the Baptist World Alliance.
Prior to the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention, Welton served in many leadership roles in the SBC including membership on the convention's Executive Committee from 1980-1984 and Director of Christian Citizenship Development of the Christian Life Commission from 1973-1977.
Welton received his undergraduate degree from Union University in Tennessee and his doctoral degree and divinity training from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
Eddie Glaude, Jr
Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. is currently the William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African American Studies at Princeton University. Prior to his appointment at Princeton, he taught at Bowdoin College and Amherst College in African American Studies and Religion. He received his BA from Morehouse College, his MA and PhD from Princeton University.
He is the author of Exodus! Religion, Race, and Nation in Early 19th Century Black America, recipient of the Modern Language Association's William Sanders Scarborough Book Prize for outstanding scholarly study of black cultural life and/or literature; co-editor with Cornel West of African American Religious Thought: An Anthology; and editor of Is it Nation Time? Contemporary Essays on Black Power and Black Nationalism. His latest book, In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, has been characterized as a tour de force - establishing him as "one of the most visionary thinkers of our time." Glaude is also a regular commentator on The Tavis Smiley Show on PRI.
Born on the coast of Mississippi, in a small town called Moss Point, Glaude brings to his scholarship and public service a sense of passion and vocation shaped by the tradition of African American struggle. As a graduate of Morehouse College, he was inspired by the courage and devotion of Martin Luther King, Jr., the institution's most famous graduate. According to Dr. Cornel West, "Eddie Glaude is the towering intellectual of his generation. There is simply no else like him emerging on the intellectual scene!"
Alexia Kelley
Alexia Kelley is the Executive Director and co-founder of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Kelley has served in diverse capacities in non-profit organizations committed to poverty reduction, social justice, and the environment. She worked for nearly a decade at the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the Catholic Church's national anti-poverty program.
Kelley is the co-editor of Living the Catholic Social Tradition: Cases and Commentary (Sheed and Ward 2004) with Dr. Kathleen Maas Weigert. The book examines how low-income led, anti-poverty organizations funded by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development put Catholic social justice teachings into action. She is co-author of a forthcoming book, A Nation For All: How the Catholic Vision of the Common Good Can Save America from the Politics of Division (Spring 2008) to be published by Jossey Bass. She is also the author of Call to Family, Community, and Participation, an education booklet in a Catholic social teaching series published by US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Kelley has a B.A. in Religion with honors from Haverford College and a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School with a focus on Christianity and Culture.
Kelley serves on the Board of Directors of the Providence Hospital Foundation and was a founding Board member of Language, Education and Technology Center, an adult literacy/ESL program at Our Lady Queen of the Americas parish in Washington, DC. Kelley served as a delegate to the 2007 Vatican's Second World Congress of Ecclesial Organizations Working for Justice and Peace in Rome. She was one of more than 300 participants from 80 countries to the Congress that was convened and facilitated by Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice.
Ed Kilgore
Ed Kilgore has an extensive background in political analysis and communications and public policy at the federal and state levels, and in the Washington think tank world. He was formerly Vice President for Policy at the Democratic Leadership Council; Communications Director for U.S. Senator Sam Nunn; and a federal-state relations aide to three governors of his home state of Georgia. Kilgore has published widely in political magazines; is a frequent guest on political radio and television programs; and is a well-known blogger, especially at his former site, NewDonkey.com.
He also served on the script and speechwriting team at the last five Democratic National Conventions. He holds an undergraduate degree from Emory University, and a law degree from the University of Georgia.
Michael Lerner
Rabbi Michael Lerner was a student and disciple of Abraham Joshua Heschel when Lerner studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He earned a ph.d in philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley and a second ph.d in clinical psychology at the Wright Institute. He subsequently formed the Institute for Labor and Mental Health where he did research on the psychodynamics of American politics, and discovered the immense hunger for "meaning and transcendent purpose for life and work" that became the hallmark of what he calls "a poltiics of meaning." Lerner founded and is Editor of Tikkun Magazine and Chair of The Network of Spriitual Progressives.
Brian McLaren
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, pastor, and networker among innovative Christian leaders, thinkers, and activists.
He is a frequent guest on television, radio, and news media programs. He has appeared on many broadcasts including Larry King Live, Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, and Nightline. His work has also been covered in Time (where he was listed as one of American's 25 most influential evangelicals), Christianity Today, Christian Century, the Washington Post, and many other print media.
Born in 1956, he graduated from University of Maryland with degrees in English (BA, summa cum laude, 1978, and MA, in 1981). His academic interests included Medieval drama, Romantic poets, modern philosophical literature, and the novels of Dr. Walker Percy. In 2004, he was awarded a Doctor of Divinity Degree (honoris causa) from Carey Theological Seminary in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
From 1978 to 1986, McLaren taught college English, and in 1982, he helped form Cedar Ridge Community Church, an innovative, nondenominational church in the Baltimore-Washington region (crcc.org). He left higher education in 1986 to serve as the church's founding pastor and served in that capacity until 2006. During that time, Cedar Ridge earned a reputation as a leader among emerging missional congregations.
Brian has been active in networking and mentoring church planters and pastors since the mid 1980's, and has assisted in the development of several new churches. He is a popular conference speaker and a frequent guest lecturer at seminaries and denominational gatherings,nationally and internationally. His public speaking covers a broad range of topics including postmodern thought and culture, Biblical studies, evangelism, leadership, global mission, spiritual formation, worship, pastoral survival and burnout, inter-religious dialogue, ecology, and social justice.
McLaren's first book, The Church on the Other Side: Doing Ministry in the Postmodern Matrix, (Zondervan, 1998, rev. ed. 2000) has been recognized as a primary portal into the current conversation about postmodern ministry. His second book, Finding Faith (Zondervan, 1999), is a contemporary apologetic, written for thoughtful seekers and skeptics. His third book, A New Kind of Christian (Jossey-Bass/Leadership Network, 2001) further explores issues of Christian faith and postmodernity, and won Christianity Today's "Award of Merit" in 2002. His fourth, More Ready Than You Realize: Evangelism as Dance in the Postmodern Matrix (2002) presents a refreshing approach to spiritual friendship. A is for Abductive (coauthored with Dr. Leonard Sweet, Zondervan, 2002) and Adventures in Missing the Point (coauthored with Dr. Anthony Campolo, Emergent/YS, 2003) explore theological reform in a postmodern context, and a sequel to A New Kind of Christian, entitled The Story We Find Ourselves In (Jossey-Bass, 2003), seeks to tell the Biblical story in a new context. He is one of five co-authors of Church in the Emerging Culture (Emergent/YS, 2003).
His 2004 release, "A Generous Orthodoxy" (Emergent/YS/Zondervan), is a personal confession and has been called a "manifesto" of the emerging church conversation. The conclusion to the A New Kind of Christian trilogy was released in 2005, entitled "The Last Word and the Word After That" (Jossey-Bass).
"The Secret Message of Jesus" (W, April 2006), explores the theme of the kingdom of God in the teachings of Jesus. "This book was written for a broad audience," he explains, "from the spiritual-but-not-religious to Christian pastors and leaders. Everything I've written to this point has been a preparation for this book."
He serves as a board chair for Sojourners/Call to Renewal (sojo.net), and is a founding member of Red Letter Christians, a group of communicators seeking to broaden and deepen the dialogue about faith and public life. He is also a board member for "Orientacion Cristiana," and formerly served on the boards of International Teams (www.iteams.org) in Chicago, Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle (mhgs.edu), and Off The Map (off-the-map.org). He has taught or lectured at several seminaries in the U.S. and abroad.
Brian is married to Grace, and they have four young adult children. He has traveled extensively in Europe, Latin America, and Africa, and his personal interests include ecology, fishing, hiking, music, art, and literature.
Sara Miles
Sara Miles is the author of Take This Bread:A Radical Conversion (Ballantine Books) and How to Hack a Party Line: The Democrats and Silicon Valley (Farrar, Straus & Giroux.) Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Out, The Progressive, La Jornada and Salon, among others. She has written extensively on military affairs, politics, religion and culture. Sara Miles is the Director of Ministry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco, where she runs a food pantry serving over 500 families a week. An activist and organizer, she directs The Food Pantry, which has helped launch 16 community-run food programs in poor neighborhoods around the Bay Area.
Robert Thurman
Robert Thurman is Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism at Columbia University and co-founder and President of Tibet House US. The first American to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk and a personal friend of the Dalai Lama for over 40 years, Professor Thurman is a passionate advocate for Tibetan culture and a determined spokesperson for the truth regarding the current Tibet-China situation and the human rights violations suffered by the Tibetan people under Chinese rule. His commitment to finding a peaceful, win-win solution for Tibet and China inspired his latest book, Why The Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World, Atria/Beyond Words: June, 2008. Hailed by the NY Times as "the leading American expert on Tibetan Buddhism," Robert Thurman has made Buddhism accessible and relevant to millions of people of all faiths around the world.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Kathleen’s faith was shaped as she grew up in a large Irish Catholic family and attended Catholic schools. The eldest child of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, she saw her parents make the connection between faith and justice, between faith and the common good. Civil rights was a moral issue - poverty unacceptable. Her father’s article “Suppose God is Black?” highlighted for her the notion that our religious beliefs were intimately connected to our public actions. In the early eighties, Kathleen wrote a number of articles connecting faith to the fight for a fairer society. She founded the Maryland Student Service Alliance to make Maryland the first, and still only state that requires young people to engage in community service as a condition of graduation. And, as Maryland’s first woman Lt. Governor, she instituted the office of Character Education - to provide a focal point for the teaching of responsibility and respect to the next generation. Kathleen serves on a number of non-profit boards. She is the chairman of the Institute for Human Virology at the University of Maryland and serves on the board of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, the Points of Light Foundation, National Catholic Reporter, and the Character Education Partnership, among others. While serving as the chairman of the board of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, she created the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. Mrs. Townsend is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Before being elected Lt. Governor, Mrs. Townsend served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the United States. She helped design and launch the nationally acclaimed Police Corps, a program that gives college scholarships to young people who pledge to work as police officers for four years after graduating Kathleen has been appointed an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Public Policy and has been a Visiting Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government where she focused her efforts on faith and public life. Mrs. Townsend is an honors graduate of Harvard University, and holds a law degree from the University of New Mexico where she was a member of the law review. She has received ten honorary degrees and has published several articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Washington Monthly, among others. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend lives outside Baltimore, Maryland with her husband, David, a professor at St. John’s College in Annapolis. They have four daughters Meaghan, Maeve, Kate and Kerry.
Mara Vanderslice
Mara Vanderslice is the organizing force behind the Matthew 25 Network. Prior to founding Matthew 25, Mara worked with Common Good Strategies, a political consulting firm that worked on connecting elected officials, candidates and state parties with America’s diverse religious communities. CGS worked on numerous successful political campaigns in 2006. Prior to that, Mara was the Director of Religious Outreach for the Kerry-Edwards 2004 campaign. Mara’s work has been profiled in The New York Times, TIME magazine, The Washington Post, ABC News and the Christian Broadcasting Network. Mara also appeared as a guest on The Colbert Report on Comedy Central.
Marianne Williamson
Marianne Williamson is an internationally acclaimed author and lecturer. She has published ten books, five of which -- including her newest The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife -- have been New York Times Bestsellers. Her first book, A Return to Love, spent 35 weeks in the #1 slot on the New York Times Bestsellers list and is considered a classic must-read of the new spirituality.
Marianne's other books include Everyday Grace, A Woman's Worth, Illuminata, Healing the Soul of America, The Gift of Change and Emma and Mommy Talk to God.
Marianne hosts a daily Course in Miracles radio program on Oprah and Friends network XM radio 156.
Marianne has been a popular guest on television programs such as Oprah, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, Charlie Rose and The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch.
Marianne is a native of Houston, Texas. In 1989, she founded Project Angel Food, a meals-on-wheels program that serves homebound people with AIDS in the Los Angeles area. Today, Project Angel Food serves over 1,000 people daily. Marianne also co-founded The Peace Alliance, a grass roots campaign supporting legislation currently before Congress to establish a U. S. Department of Peace.
In December 2006, a NEWSWEEK magazine poll named Marianne Williamson one of the fifty most influential baby boomers.
Mike McCurry
McCurry is a veteran political strategist and spokesperson with over 30 years of experience in Washington D.C. McCurry served in the White House as press secretary to President Bill Clinton (1995-1998). He also served as spokesman for the Department of State (1993-1995) and director of communications for the Democratic National Committee (1988-1990). McCurry held a variety of leadership roles in national campaigns for the Democratic ticket from 1984 to 2004.
McCurry began his career on the staff of the United States Senate, working as press secretary to the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources and to the committee's chairman, Senator Harrison A. Williams, Jr. (1976-1981). He also served as press secretary to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1981-1983).
McCurry serves on boards or advisory councils for Share Our Strength, the Center for International Private Enterprise, the Council for Excellence in Government, the Junior Statesmen Foundation, the Children's Scholarship Fund, the Wesley Theological Seminary, and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
McCurry is a member of the Commission on Presidential Debates and also serves as a Senior Advisor to Grassroots Enterprise, Inc., a firm specializing in using internet technology to build strong grassroots activist campaigns.
McCurry received his Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University in 1976 and a Master of Arts from Georgetown University in 1985.
Diana Butler Bass
Diane Butler Bass is an author, speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture. She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of six books including the best-selling Christianity for the Rest of Us, released by Harper One in 2006. That book was named as one of the best religion books of the year by Publishers Weekly and Christianity Century, won the Book of the Year Award from the Academy of Parish Clergy, and was featured in a cover story in USA TODAY. She is currently Senior Fellow at the Cathedral College of the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Diana regularly consults with religious organizations, leads conferences for religious leaders, and teaches and preaches in a variety of venues. She is currently working on two books. A People’s History of Christianity, a history of Christian spirituality and social justice, is scheduled for March 2009 release from Harper One. Pilgrimage, part of the “Seven Ancient Practices” series, will be published in 2010. From 2002 to 2006, she was the Project Director of a national Lilly Endowment funded study of mainline Protestant vitality—a project featured in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. She serves on the board of directors of the Beatitudes Society, and participates in an advisor for Emergent Village and Synagogue 3000. She is part of Sojourner’s Red Letter Christians and is a regular contributor to the God’s Politics blog on Beliefnet. Diana has taught at Westmont College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Macalester College, Rhodes College, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. She has taught church history, American religious history, history of Christian thought, religion and politics, and congregational studies. From 1995-2000 she wrote a weekly column on American religion for the New York Times Syndicate. She has written widely in the religious press, including Sojourners, Christian Century, Clergy Journal, and Congregations. She has appeared on CNN, PBS, FOX, and NPR. Diana’s other books include The Practicing Congregation: Imagining a New Old Church (Alban, 2004), which has been lauded as one of the most important books on mainline Protestantism in the last two decades. In addition, she has written From Nomads to Pilgrims: Stories from Practicing Congregations (Alban, 2006), Broken We Kneel: Reflections on Faith and Citizenship (Jossey-Bass, 2004), Strength for the Journey: A Pilgrimage of Faith in Community (Jossey-Bass, 2002) earned a starred review in Publishers Weekly and was named one of the best religion books of 2002 by the same publication, and her dissertation, Standing Against the Whirlwind: Evangelical Episcopalians in 19th Century America (Oxford University Press, 1995), which won the Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer prize of the American Society of Church History. Two of her books have been nominated for the Louisville Grawemeyer Award. She, her husband, Richard Bass, and their family live in Alexandria, Virginia. She is a member of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in downtown Washington, D.C. In addition to her family and church, she loves mystery novels, wine tasting, walking, Duke basketball, art museums, quiet evenings at home, interesting conversation with people who want to change the world, and vacationing pretty much anywhere with warm breezes, palm trees, and a beach.
Omid Safi
Omid Safi is a University of North Carolina professor and author of Progressive Muslims.
Leonard Fein
Leonard Fein, who founded and for 12 years edited Moment magazine, is also the founder of Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger and of the National Jewish Coalition for Literacy. A political scientist by training, he taught at MIT and served as Deputy Director of the MIT/Harvard Joint Center for Urban Studies, and was a professor of politics and social policy, as also of contemporary Jewish studies, at Brandeis University. He is the author of four books and the editor of two; he has written extensively in magazines and newspapers, and is a weekly OpEd columnist in the Forward.
Rabbi Or N. Rose
Rabbi Or N. Rose is Associate Dean of the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College in Newton, MA. He is the co-editor of Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice and God in All Moments: Spiritual and Practical Wisdom from the Hasidic Masters (both from Jewish Lights Publishing). Rabbi Rose is a contributing editor for Tikkun and a member of the editorial committee of Sh'ma. He is currently completing a doctorate in Jewish thought at Brandeis University.
Burns Strider
Burns Strider, a native of Grenada County, Mississippi, served in an array of positions prior to founding TThe Eleison Group, including Senior Advisor and Director of Faith Outreach to U. S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and her campaign for President, Director of Policy for the U. S. House Democratic Caucus, Advisor to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) , Director of the U. S. House Democratic Faith Working Group and Rural Working Group, regional Communications Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Chief of Staff to U. S. Congressman Ronnie Shows (D-MS). In 2007 Strider was named one of the 12 most influential Democrats in the nation on faith and values politics and issues by Religion News Service. In the mid-90’s Burns spent two years in Hong Kong as a Missionary with the Southern Baptist Convention serving as youth minister at International Baptist Church. Strider has worked on more than 15 campaigns, managing 5 of them. He has developed communications plans used in over 35 congressional and statewide races as well as a teaching tool for the National Democratic Institute in their work with progressive political parties in foreign countries. He has been a commentator for National Public Radio and has taught and lectured at various political workshops around the nation including current stints with Camp Wellstone.
Eric Sapp
Eric Sapp, a native of Durham, NC, was Senior Partner at Common Good Strategies (CGS) prior to founding The Eleison Group. CGS received significant national attention following the ’06 cycle for its groundbreaking faith outreach and messaging work for the DSCC, Senators Casey and Brown, Governors Strickland, Granholm, and Sebelius, Rep. Shuler, and the Michigan, Kansas, and Oregon State Democratic Parties. CGS clients significantly out-performed Democrats nationally (normally by double-digits) with Protestants, evangelicals, Catholics, and weekly church attenders. Dr. John Green, Sr. Fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, said about CGS’s work that “if Democrats learn a lesson from ’06 and are able to duplicate these efforts more widely…we could potentially see historic shifts in voting blocks that would dramatically change the relationship between faith and politics in this country.” Eric has been a regular speaker on faith and politics on television and radio shows, most often providing a Democratic perspective on conservative programs. Eric’s background also includes stints with Representative David Price (D-NC), where he handled faith and politics, budget, tax, and homeland security issues. Before that, he worked for Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Eric has a Master of Divinity and Master of Public Policy from Duke. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Julie.
Robert P. Jones
Robert P. Jones, Ph.D. is president of Public Religion Research and author of Progressive & Religious: How Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist Leaders are Moving Beyond the Culture Wars and Transforming American Public Life. Dr. Jones is also a Visiting Fellow in Religion at The Third Way and a regular columnist for the online magazine ReligionDispatches.org. His firm is a national strategic consulting firm that specializes in research and polling to help clients understand the complex ways religion and values shape American politics and public life. Dr. Jones is a member of the national steering committee for the Religion and Politics Group at the American Academy of Religion; he is also an active member of the Society of Christian Ethics and the American Association of Public Opinion Research. Previously, Dr. Jones served as an affiliated scholar at the Center for American Progress and as the founding director and senior fellow at the Center for American Values in Public Life at People for the American Way Foundation. Prior to his work in Washington, DC, he was assistant professor of religious studies at Missouri State University and a teaching fellow in religion at Emory University. He holds a Ph.D. from Emory University and M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Jones is also the author of Liberalism's Troubled Search for Equality: Religion and Cultural Bias in the Oregon Physician-assisted Suicide Debates.
Naomi Wolf
Naomi Wolf was born in San Francisco in 1962. She was an undergraduate at Yale University and did her graduate work at New College, Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Her essays have appeared in various publications including: The New Republic, Wall Street Journal, Glamour, Ms., Esquire, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. She also speaks widely to groups across the country. The Beauty Myth , her first book, was an international bestseller. She followed that with Fire With Fire: The New Female Power and How It Will Change The 21st Century, published by Random House in 1993, and Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood, published in 1997. Misconceptions, released in 2001, is a powerful and passionate critique of pregnancy and birth in America. In 2002, Harper Collins published a 10th anniversary commemorative edition of The Beauty Myth. Wolf is the author of Give Me Liberty and The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. Wolf is co-founder of the Board of The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership, an organization devoted to training young women in ethical leadership for the 21st century. The institute teaches professional development in the arts and media, politics and law, business and entrepreneurship as well as ethical decision making. Her most recent book, a New York Times bestseller, is The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, published in 2007 by Chelsea Green.
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Alexia Kelley
Brian McLaren