The Institute of Interfaith Dialog was founded by Turkish Muslim Fethullah Gulen and, though based in Houston, has chapters throughout the South and Southwest.

Deborah R. McFarlane is a professor in the department of political science at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. She co-wrote the book The Politics of Fertility Control.

Nate Butler is president of Comix35, based in Albuquerque, N.M. Founded in 1996, Comix35 is a Christian ministry devoted to “training individuals and ministries around the world in the production and effective use of comics-style literature” for evangelization. Butler has an adjunct organization, Christian Comics International.

Fred Lynch, a youth evangelist, is the former youth minister at City on a Hill, a nondenominational congregation in Albuquerque, N.M., and founder of UrbNet, the Urban Youth Workers Network.

The American Ghost Society is a national network of ghost hunters, authors, ghost enthusiasts and psychical researchers who conduct investigations into the paranormal. They maintain a list of members and ghost hunters by state.

Martin Rutte is a Santa Fe-based consultant on spirituality in the workplace. He co-wrote Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work (Health Communications, 2001).

Christine Sierra is an emeritus professor of political science at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, where she also is the director of the Southwest Hispanic Research Institute.

Attorney Gene Schaerr helped draft RLUIPA, testified on its behalf before Congress and has been heavily involved in defending it.