Frye Gaillard is a writer in residence at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. He is the author of the 2009 biography “Prophet From Plains: Jimmy Carter and His Legacy.”

Brooks Flippen is a professor of history at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, Okla., and a scholar of religion and American politics. He is the author of Jimmy Carter, the Politics of Family, and the Rise of the Religious Right.

Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. He is an American political historian and the author of the 2010 biography Jimmy Carter.

Peter Bourne is a visiting senior research fellow at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. He worked previously as an assistant secretary-general of the United Nations and is the author of the 1997 book Jimmy Carter: A Comprehensive Biography from Plains to Post-Presidency. 

Kathleen Townsend was Maryland’s first woman lieutenant governor, from 1995 to 2003, and is the author of Failing America’s Faithful: How Today’s Churches Mixed God With Politics and Lost Their Way.

In 2010, a Florida pastor with just a few dozen followers attracted international media coverage when he announced plans to burn copies of the Quran on the anniversary of 9/11. By taking the bait, media outlets became complicit in advancing his hate-filled agenda, making Terry Jones a household name in the U.S. and far beyond. […]

David Scott Mathieson is the senior researcher on Myanmar/Burma in the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch.

Michael Peppard is an assistant professor at Fordham University in New York City.