Peter W. Williams is professor emeritus of religion at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is the author of Religion, Art and Money: Episcopalians and American Culture from the Civil War to the Great Depression, a look at how Episcopalians influenced the visual arts during that time.

Philip Graham Ryken is president of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. He is the author of Art for God’s Sake: A Call to Recover the Arts, which argues that God has a plan for the arts, which Ryken sees as a tool for both evangelism and glorifying God. Contact via media relations at Wheaton.

Norman Girardot is a professor of religion at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. He is the author of Envisioning Howard Finster: The Myth and Meaning of a Stranger from Another World, about the American folk artist, whose work frequently included religious themes and images. Girardot is also an expert on similar artists, including Gregory Warmack, Myrtice West, Norbert […]

The Rev. Eugenio Fizzotti is a Catholic priest and a professor at the Papal University of the Salesians in Rome and at the University of Urbino, where he teaches psychology of religion. He is co-founder of the Viktor Frankl Institut in Vienna and president of the European Association of Existential Analysis (ALAEF). He has authored […]

UM Action is part of the Institute on Religion & Democracy, a faith-based alliance of Christians working to monitor, comment on and report on issues affecting the church. It was founded in 1994 by Mark Tooley, IRD’s president, with the goal of bringing greater transparency and accountability to United Methodism through reporting and advocacy work. John Lomperis is […]

Transforming Congregations was founded in 1988 as a renewal and reform ministry within the United Methodist Church. It works to provide churches and church leaders with the resources to respond to “those struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction and behavior.” It advocates for responses to homosexuality that are neither homophobic nor accommodationist. In 2013, TC became […]

Renew Network is a women’s ministry network for the United Methodist Church based in The Woodlands, Tx. It was founded in 1989 as the Evangelical Coalition for United Methodist Women as a network for evangelical women within the church. Renew works to encourage women to become leaders within the church and assist churches in developing […]

Lifewatch is the quarterly newsletter published by the Taskforce of United Methodists on Abortion and Sexuality (TUMAS), which was founded in 1987 with the goal of promoting pro-life thought within the United Methodist Church and providing support for abortion-prevention activities. Lifewatch is edited by the Rev. Paul T. Stallworth, who lives in Whiteville, N.C.

The United Methodist Kairos Response was founded in 2010 in response to Kairos Palestine, a Christian Palestinian movement. It is critical of the Israeli government and calls for the United Methodist Church to “divest its holdings in companies that support and profit from Israel’s occupation.” UMKR is a member organization of the U.S. Campaign to End the […]