The Rev. Alexia Salvatierra is a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and executive director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice-California. She has been active in the New Sanctuary Movement and can discuss its organization on the national and local level.

Read a July 17, 2008 Pew Forum research report on the different religious views on stem cell research.

Stayer is a professor emeritus in the history department at Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada. He studies Lutheran theology in the context of early modern European history. Evangelicalism is also a specialty of his.

Ross is an associate professor in the department of religion and culture at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, Canada. A focus of his is Lutheran theology and Evangelicals. He also studies religion and social change and new religious movements.

Bethesda Lutheran Communities, affiliated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and based in Watertown, Wis., serves people with developmental disabilities. Its support services include religious education. The media contact is Julie Timm.