Thomas R. Dunlap is a history professor at Texas A&M University in College Station with an expertise in environmental history. He is the author of Faith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious Quest.

Tim Reed is a professor of English and American studies at Washington State University in Pullman. He is responsible for the website Popular Culture, which looks at mostly American popular culture.

William Weston is a sociology professor at Centre College in Danville, Ky. At his blog, “Gruntled Center,” he wrote of Jackson, “Michael Jackson is being inducted into the musical pantheon of American civil religion.”

Shira Gabriel is an assistant professor of psychology at the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, N.Y., who has conducted three studies on celebrity worship, one of which focused on how it boosts the worshipper’s self-esteem.

August 1996, Our Planet article by Fazlun Khalid about the Islamic approach to environmentalism. Khalid directs the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences.

Rebecca Greenwood is co-founder and president of Christian Harvest International and Strategic Prayer Action Network (SPAN). She is the author of Destined to Rule: Spiritual Strategies for Advancing the Kingdom of God (2007), in which she discusses the role and responsibilities of Christians as “rulers” over creation.

Cassandra Carmichael is the executive director of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment. Previously, she served as director of the National Council of Churches’ Eco-Justice Programs and has written numerous articles on faith and the environment.

Edward Brown is the founding director of Care of Creation, a Christian environmental mission agency based in Madison, Wis. He is the author of Our Father’s World: Mobilizing the Church to Care for Creation.

Carolyn Tripp is a marketing professor at Southeastern University, a Christian school in Lakeland, Fla., where she focuses on marketing for Christian nonprofits.