Alexander W. Astin is professor of Higher Education Emeritus at the University of California. He is a co-principal investigator of “Spirituality in Higher Education: A National Study of College Students’ Search for Meaning and Purpose,” an ongoing study by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Mark Weldon Whitten is the author of The Myth of Christian America: What You Need to Know About the Separation of Church and State. He teaches religion and philosophy at Lone Star College – Montgomery in Texas. He says new research has shown that the founders had mixed opinions on the role of religion in the […]

Peg Smith is chief executive officer of the American Camp Association, which includes Christian and Jewish as well as secular camps among its 7,000 members. The mission of her camp experiences is to enrich the lives of children and adults.  

Eugene C. Roehlkepartain is co-directors of the Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence in Minneapolis. Roehlkepartain specializes in the role of religious institutions and spiritual development in young people’s development.

David R. Bains teaches the history of American Christianity at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.

Peter L. Benson and Eugene C. Roehlkepartain are co-directors of the Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence in Minneapolis. Benson is investigator and co-director for Search Institute’s new Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence. He wrote Sparks: How Parents Can Help Ignite the Hidden Strengths of Teenagers (2008) and has more than a dozen other publications.

Karen-Marie Yust is an associate professor of Christian education at Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Va. She is a minister in both the United Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ denominations and is the author of Real Kids, Real Faith: Practices for Nurturing Children’s Spiritual Lives.

Bob Ditter is a therapist and author who specializes in working with youth and their families. He is a consultant for the American Camping Association and has worked with summer camps since 1982.

Isaac Kramnick teaches government at Cornell University and co-authored The Godless Constitution: A Moral Defense of the Secular State (W.W. Norton, 2005). His 1996 American Prospect essay “Is God a Republican?” reflects on religious entanglement in partisan politics. Book co-author R. Laurence Moore teaches American studies at Cornell.