His Excellency Mohammad Khatami served two terms as Iran’s president from 1997 to 2005. He also founded the Tehran-based International Institute for Dialogue among Civilizations and Cultures. The “On Faith” panelist was born into a religious family and studied theology in Iran’s holy city of Qom. He also has a Master’s Degree in education from Tehran University. After Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution Khatami served as chief editor of “Keyhan Daily” newspaper, and was elected a member of parliament. He served as Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance from 1982 to 1992 and later as President of the High Council for Cultural Revolution. Khatami was elected fifth President of the Islamic Republic in 1997, gaining almost 70 percent of the votes cast. He was re-elected to a second term in 2001. Besides Persian, Khatami speaks Arabic, English and German and has written many books. In 1998, he called for a dialogue among the world’s civilizations and cultures, prompting U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to declare 2001 the U.N. Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations. Khatami presently participates in the High-Level Group of the United Nations’ Alliance of Civilizations. The Group comprises 20 international leaders called together by Annan and the prime ministers of Spain and Turkey to counter the deterioration of relations between societies and nations. The Alliance seeks to establish a relationship of mutual respect between civilizations and rejects religious and political extremism.

Christopher Dickey is Paris Bureau Chief and Middle East Regional Editor for Newsweek magazine . An award-winning author, the "On Faith" panelist previously was a foreign correspondent in Cairo and Central America for the Washington Post. In his 30 years as a reporter and correspondent, Dickey has written frequently about issues of faith in the midst of conflict, from liberation theology in Latin America to radical Islam in Europe and the Middle East . His Shadowland column , about counter-terrorism, espionage and the Iraq war, appears weekly on Newsweek Online . His books include With the Contras: A Reporter in the Wilds of Nicaragua (1986); Expats: Travels in Arabia from Tripoli to Tehran (1990); Innocent Blood: A Novel (1997), and Summer of Deliverance: A Memoir of Father and Son (1998). His most recent novel, The Sleeper (2004), was called it "a first-rate thriller" by the New York Times. Dickey was the 1983-84 Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York .

"On Faith" panelist James Anderson is a retired Episcopal priest, an almost full-time volunteer in the community, a part-time farm manager, and independent writer. Anderson was one of four founders of the Alban Institute in Washington, D.C., and served as first president of its board. The Institute has grown to become one of the most respected sources of help in the nation to local congregations. Anderson is the author or co-author of three books on ministry in the local church: To Come Alive (1973) and The Management of Ministry (1978), co-authored with Ezra Earl Jones, have been widely used in the training and education of clergy. Anderson, who has wide experience as an advisor and consultant to a variety of religious organizations, also served as assistant to the Bishop for Congregational Development for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and director of Field Studies for the Cathedral College of the Laity at the Washington National Cathedral. He's currently writing a book with Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon examining the 40-year history of the effort to fully integrate women into the ordained ministry of the Episcopal Church.

Charles W. "Chuck" Colson is founder of Prison Fellowship, a Christian outreach ministry to the prison population of this country, as well as to ex-prisoners and crime victims. The "On Faith" panelist's daily radio commentary, BreakPoint, is aired daily on over a 1,000 radio outlets nationwide. Colson also is a syndicated columnist, lawyer, and author of 25 books, most recently The Faith (2008). He served as special counsel to the late President Richard M. Nixon (1969-73). After pleading guilty to a Watergate-related charge of obstruction of justice in 1974, Colson served seven months of a one to three-year federal prison sentence. His 1973 Christian conversion was documented in the internationally best-selling book and film, Born Again. He founded Prison Fellowship in 1976. In 1993, Colson was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion and donated the $1 million prize to Prison Fellowship. In the last 28 years, Colson has visited more than 600 prisons in 40 countries and, with the help of nearly 50,000 volunteers, has built Prison Fellowship into the world's largest prison outreach, serving the spiritual and practical needs of prisoners in 93 countries including the U.S.