Stephanie Mitchem is a professor of womanist theology and African-American spirituality at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. She is the author of Name It and Claim It? Prosperity Preaching in the Black Church (Pilgrim Press, 2006).

John Sullivan is executive director and treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention in Jacksonville. He has written about prosperity gospel as deviant from true biblical teaching.

Clint Brown is the pastor of Faith World in Orlando, Fla. He has urged members to give sacrificially so that their “blessings increase” and bring them more material wealth.

Sondra Ely Wheeler is a professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. She has written about what the New Testament says about money and possessions and can discuss the theological background and implications of prosperity gospel.

Maria Luisa Tucker is program director and multimedia editor at Youth Communication in New York. In January 2006, she posted a blog entry linking the rise and fall of prosperity gospel to national politics.

Bishop C. Milton Grannum is the founder and senior pastor of the New Covenant Church of Philadelphia. He has been critical of prosperity gospel, saying God blesses people with prosperity not so they can buy cars but so they can share with others.

Jack Gibbs is media coordinator for Crown Financial Ministries, a global ministry based in Gainesville, Ga., that teaches a Christian and Bible-based money management system. The group does not stress personal wealth and prosperity but focuses on responsible stewardship. Contact via the website. 

Ole Anthony is founder of the Trinity Foundation, a televangelist watchdog organization that has helped uncover questionable, and sometimes criminal, financial practices of television preachers. Trinity maintains a Web page that reports on the activities of various prosperity gospel preachers. 

The Rev. John Sewell is rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Memphis, Tenn.