Ashley Judd, Actress

"I like to make a distinction between religion and spirituality and something I've heard is 'Religion is for people who fear hell, and spirituality is for people who have been there,'" Judd said in an interview with Sally Quinn.

The actress and activist talked with on Faith's Sally Quinn about the development of her own spiritual practice and how therapy helped heal her.

Watch Ashley Judd talk about pulling herself out of her own hell through therapy, healing from a childhood of abuse and her service to women worldwide.

Ashley Judd

Amy Grant, Grammy Award-winning Singer/ Songwriter

Grammy award winning singer/songwriter Amy Grant has taken her "gospel roots" with her throughout her thirty years in the entertainment industry. But the breakup of her marriage to fellow entertainer Gary Chapman led her to question the foundation of her Christian faith.

"Well Jesus, if your whole job was to reconcile us to God and one another, why didn't that work?" Grant asked in an interview with On Faith's Sally Quinn.

Amy Grant

Links:
Amy Grant Twitter
Amy Grant at the Kennedy Center for Challenge America
Official Website

Richard Gere, actor, Buddhist activist

Richard Gere became known throughout American households for his leading roles in movies like An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman and Chicago. His on-screen swagger and good looks only added to his appeal.

But the surface is not where Gere finds meaning.

"I think I always had a sense that the surface of things was not really dependable or sufficient," Gere said in the interview. In Buddhism he found "a point of view that was demanding that you look below the surface."

Watch Gere talk with On Faith's Sally Quinn about what he learned from the Dalai Lama, what his Protestant roots have in common with his Zen practice and how Buddhism's simplicity is also its greatest challenge.

Richard Gere

Links:
The Gere Foundation
Dalai Lama

Elie Wiesel, Author, Nobel Prize winner

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has written and spoken candidly throughout his life about the desolation he endured in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. His bestselling memoir, Night, exposed not only his suffering at the hands of Nazi Germany, but also his tormented relationship with a God that could have permitted such horrors.

In early 2009, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, the nonprofit through which Wiesel conducted much of his advocacy and peacemaking work, announced it had lost more than $15 million dollars to Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme. The Wiesels also lost their life savings to the discredited financier. In an interview with On Faith's Sally Quinn, Wiesel talks about losing "everything" for the second time in his life.

"We were devastated on every level," Madoff said in the interview with Quinn. Watch Wiesel explain how he came to terms with Madoff - and with God.

Elie Weisel

Links:
The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity
Night, by Elie Wiesel
Portfolio profile of Wiesel after Madoff

Tim Russert, Host of NBC's Meet the Press

In December 2007, seven months before his sudden death, Tim Russert sat down with On Faith's Sally Quinn to talk about his Catholic roots, how journalism taught him to question God and his spiritual doubts.

"In the end, there is a reason it's called faith. It's something you believe in," Russert said in the interview. "You hope and believe and it gives a sense of purpose and meaning which I find very helpful." Watch Tim Russert talk with Sally Quinn about the source and fruit of his Catholic belief.

Tim Russert

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Anglican priest in Cape Town, South Africa; winner, Nobel Peace Prize

Archbishop Tutu's work against apartheid in South Africa inspired a generation of peacemakers. But it's his teaching on Christian forgiveness that makes his message spiritually transformational.

"God has given us the gift of freedom. We can choose heaven or we can choose hell," Tutu said in the interview.

Watch Tutu talk about God's forgiveness even for "appalling" acts, his reconciliation work and the "mind-blowing' love of God with On Faith's Sally Quinn.

Links:
Desmond Tutu Peace Centre

Christopher Hitchens, Author and atheist

Christopher Hitchens doesn't get religion, and that's the way he likes it.

"The golden rule is fine for me," Hitchens answered, citing Confucius, when asked about where he derives his morality in an interview with On Faith's Sally Quinn.

Watch Hitchens talk about why he doesn't want to believe in God and why he despises the idea of heaven.

Christopher Hitchens

Links:
Hitchens' Website
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Peter Gomes, Chaplain Harvard University

If Jesus came back and witnessed the church today, says Peter Gomes, chaplain of Harvard "he would weep."

The Harvard chaplain and author of many of books including The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus talked with On Faith's Sally Quinn about why he doesn't take the bible literally -and how those who do are drawing not on a traditional understanding of the text, but on an early 20th century notion.

»Watch Gomes discuss the scandal of the gospel, communism as Christianity and what he thinks conservatives miss about Jesus' message.

Links:
Gomes at Harvard
The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus