Sherman A. Jackson is a professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, a visiting professor of law, and a professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Michigan , Ann Arbor . He has served as Executive Director for the Center of Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) in Cairo , Egypt , is a member of the U.S.-Muslim World Advisory Committee of the U.S. Institute of Peace , and a co-founder of the American Learning Institute for Muslims (ALIM). The “On Faith” panelist is also a former member of the Fiqh Council of North America , past president of the Sharî‘ah Scholars' Association of North America (SSANA) and a past trustee of the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). In addition to numerous articles on Islamic law, theology and history, Jackson is the author of Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihâb al-Dîn al-Qarâfî , On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam: Abû Hâmid al-Ghazâlî's Faysal al-Tafriqa and, most recently, the controversial Islam and Blackamerican: Looking Towards the Third Resurrection . Jackson has lectured throughout the US and in numerous countries abroad. He has also taught at the University of Texas at Austin , Indiana University, Wayne State University and was recently offered a full-professorship at Stanford University , which he declined.

The Reverend C. Welton Gaddy leads the nonpartisan educational organizations The Interfaith Alliance and The Interfaith Alliance Foundation, and hosts the latter's national weekly radio show, State of Belief. The “On Faith” panelist also serves as pastor for preaching and worship at Northminster Church in Monroe, La. Gaddy has written more than 20 books, which reflect his interest in the intersection of religion, media and activism as well as his progressive view of the Baptist church, including: I Give You My Word: Sharing the Language of Life ” with Walter Cronkite; Faith and Politics: What's a Christian to Do ?; Adultery and Grace: the Ultimate Scandal ; and A Love Affair With God: Finding Freedom & Intimacy in Prayer . Gaddy also is one of 20 religious members of the Council of 100 leaders, a group created by the World Economic Forum to foster dialogue between Western and Muslim countries. He has served in leadership roles at the national Alliance of Baptists, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Commission of Christian Ethics of the Baptist World Alliance, Board of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Pastoral Leadership Commission of the Baptist World Alliance, and Southern Baptist Convention. The Washington-based Interfaith Alliance was founded in 1994 to promote the positive role of religion in American life, and now has more than 185,000 members drawn from 75 religious traditions or belief systems. It is supported by 47 local activist groups and a cyber-network of 45,000 people. Gaddy earned his undergraduate degree from Union University in Tennessee and his doctoral degree and divinity training from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

Jim Wallis is president and executive director of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, progressive Christian movements founded to fight poverty and promote social justice. He also is the author of the best-selling God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (2005). The “On Faith” panelist was raised in a Midwest evangelical family. As a teenager, his questioning of the racial segregation in his church and community led him to the black churches and neighborhoods of inner-city Detroit. He spent his student years involved in the civil rights and antiwar movements. While at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, Wallis and several other students started a small magazine and community with a Christian commitment to social justice that has grown into a national faith-based organization and network. In 1979, Time magazine named Wallis one of the “50 Faces for America’s Future.” Wallis also is editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine and speaks at more than 200 events each year. Some of his other books include Faith Works; The Soul of Politics: A Practical and Prophetic Vision for Change; Who Speaks for God? A New Politics of Compassion, Community, and Civility; and Call to Conversion.

“On Faith” panelist Brian D. McLaren is a best-selling author, pastor and intellectual leader of “emerging church,” a Christian evangelical movement that seeks new ways to worship and understand the gospel in a postmodern era. He serves as a board chair for Sojourners/Call to Renewal, an evangelical social justice ministry, and is a founding member of Red Letter Christians, a network of progressive evangelical leaders who seek to apply Christian values to a broad agenda of concerns, including poverty, environmental care and advancing peace. McLaren, who is founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Maryland, has lectured widely in the United States and abroad. His topics include postmodern thought and culture, Biblical studies, evangelism, inter-religious dialogue, ecology, and social justice. His eight books include A New Kind of Christian, A Generous Orthodoxy, and The Secret Message of Jesus. In 2005, McLaren was named by TIME magazine as one of America’s 25 most influential evangelicals.