Written by Betty Brogaard. Brogaard describes her personal experience questioning her Christianity and her spiritual journey from religion to freethought.

Leon J. Podles, who lives in Baltimore and in Naples, Fla., wrote The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity (Spence, 1999).

Marcia Y. Riggs is J. Erskine Love Professor of Christian Ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga. She wrote Plenty Good Room: Women Versus Male Power in the Black Church (Pilgrim Press, 2003).

Sally Moran of Charleston, S.C., is the author of a 2004 print-on-demand book, Women of the Covenant: The Case for Female Roman Catholic Priests.

Kenneth Carder is professor of the practice of pastoral formation at Duke University, Durham, N.C., and senior fellow of Pulpit & Pew. He is a United Methodist bishop.

Howard Hendricks is chairman of the Center for Christian Leadership at Dallas Theological Seminary in Texas.

The Rev. Frederick W. Schmidt is director of spiritual formation and Anglican studies and an associate professor of Christian spirituality at Southern Methodist University, Dallas. He is the author of A Still Small Voice: Women, Ordination and the Church (Syracuse University Press, 1996).

William C. Placher is a professor of philosophy and religion and LaFollette Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind. His books include, as editor, Callings: Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation (Eerdmans Publishing, 2005).

James R. Wood is a professor emeritus of sociology at Indiana University, Bloomington, and was part of a team of scholars working on a project called “Organizing Religious Work for the 21st Century.”