P. Kent Smith is a professor of missions at the graduate school of theology at Abilene Christian University in Texas, where he teaches a course on culture and evangelism in North America. Smith has ministered for churches in Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana and Missouri.

Joel C. Hunter is pastor of the megachurch Northland, A Church Distributed, in Longwood, Fla., and author of Right Wing, Wrong Bird: Why the Tactics of the Religious Right Won’t Fly With Most Conservative Christians. He says Christians should be politically involved without sacrificing the Christian mission of service to the poor and weak. Hunter has also been involved […]

Marty Duren is a pastor of New Bethany Baptist Church in Buford, Ga., and a Southern Baptist author of the Kingdom in the Midst blog. He considers himself a “bedrock theological conservative” but has said that at Baptist meetings he feels “like a stranger in a strange land.” On his blog he has said that […]

Paul J. Dean is the pastor of Providence Baptist Church in Greer, S.C., and is a prominent radio host and commentator on conservative Christian activities. Dean wrote a January 2008 essay on Crosswalk.com titled “Cultural Engagement: Every Christian’s Obligation.”

David Neff is chief of Christianity Today, the leading evangelical periodical. It is based in Carol Stream, Ill. He continues to explore the relationship between history and current events in his bimonthly column, “Past Imperfect.” Contact through Paulette DePaul.

Kevin Phillips, former Republican strategist, is a political and economic commentator. He is the author of American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century (2006), in which he describes the Republican Party as “the first American religious Party” in America. Contact via Laura Tisdel.

Peter Wehner is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a former deputy assistant to President George W. Bush. Wehner wrote a Dec. 31, 2007, National Review article titled “Among Evangelicals, a Transformation.”

Jimmy Carter is a former president of the United States and a Southern Baptist. In his book, Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis, he writes of an “unapologetic crusade underway to merge fundamentalist Christians with the right wing of the Republican Party.” Contact through Tony Clark at the Carter Presidential Library.

Walter B. Shurden is a retired professor of Christianity and the founding executive director the Center for Baptist Studies at Mercer University in Macon, Ga. In June 2006, he delivered an address before the Religious Liberty Council Luncheon at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in which he outlined ways in which he thinks some American Christians have […]