Mark Weldon Whitten is the author of The Myth of Christian America: What You Need to Know About the Separation of Church and State. He teaches religion and philosophy at Lone Star College – Montgomery in Texas. He says new research has shown that the founders had mixed opinions on the role of religion in the […]

The Rev. Harold Recinos is a professor of church and society at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology in Dallas. He has worked with immigrants in the United States and abroad and studies issues related to immigrants and refugees in the United States.

Nestor Rodriguez is a professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. He can speak about the impact of the 1996 immigration act and about migrant deaths at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Elaine Heath is McCreless Assistant Professor of Evangelism at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Roger Olson is an expert in historical theology and professor of religion at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary in Waco, Texas. Olson co-chairs the evangelical theology group of the American Academy of Religion. He wrote the “theology of evangelicalism” entry in the Encyclopedia of Protestantism (Routledge, 2004).

Danielle Grubb Shroyer is pastor of Journey Community Church in Dallas. She serves on the national Emergent Coordinating Group in the area of social justice. She is the author of The Boundary-Breaking God:  An Unfolding Story of Hope and Promise (Jossey-Bass, 2009).

Wes Bergen teaches religion at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kan., is the religion chairman for the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association and is also a pastor. He is currently working on a new book about ritual in Leviticus.

Steven Schafersman is president of Texas Citizens for Science. He has accused critics of trying to water down school textbook coverage of evolution so they can pressure publishers to include religious-based explanations for the origin of life.

Dan Quinn is spokesman for the Texas Freedom Network in Austin, a statewide, nonprofit, nonpartisan alliance that includes more than 7,500 religious and community leaders concerned about the “growing social and political influence of religious political extremists.” The group has been at the forefront of trying to prevent religious conservatives from controlling the content in school textbooks […]