Ari Goldman is a journalism professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in New York City. He is a former religion reporter for The New York Times and is the author of several books on Jews and Judaism, including Being Jewish: The Spiritual and Cultural Practice of Judaism Today and Living a Year of Kaddish. He can discuss major issues […]

WordAlone is a Minnesota-based organization that encourages congregations to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America due to its decisions regarding homosexuality.

Steven M. Cohen is a research professor of Jewish social policy at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and a senior consultant to Synagogue 3000. He is one of the authors of the 2007 National Spiritual Communities Study and can discuss its findings on independent minyanim and havurot.

Affirmation is an activist, all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization that challenges the United Methodist Church to be inclusive of LGBTQ people around the world. It is based in Evanston, Ill.

The Reconciling Ministries Network is a movement within the United Methodist Church that works for the inclusion of all people in the UMC regardless of sexual orientation. Contact through director of communications M. Barclay.

Good News, a magazine launched in 1967, represents the vanguard of Methodism’s conservative counteroffensive. It remains a major player in the efforts to limit expanded roles and rights for homosexuals in the UMC. The Rev. Rob Renfroe is its president and publisher. It is based in The Woodlands, Texas.

Cliff Guthrie is an associate professor of religion and humanities at Husson University in Bangor, Maine. For many years, he co-taught a course titled “Reel Theology: Faith and the Movies” at Bangor Theological Seminary.

The Confessing Movement within the United Methodist Church is the leading conservative group of Methodists opposed to gay ordination (and related issues). The Confessing Movement was founded in 1994 and is based in Indianapolis. Patricia Miller is executive director.

Michele Desmarais is the associate editor of the Journal of Religion and Film and an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. She specializes in Buddhism and other Eastern religions.