Evangelicalism

Neil Clark Warren is the founder of the online dating service eHarmony. The company performs extensive personality profiling and then introduces couples with matching values and interests. Warren is an Evangelical Christian with strong ties to the conservative Christian community.

Journalist David Kirkpatrick covers Congress for The New York Times. As part of a series on class issues for the paper, he co-authored a story on the increase of evangelical Christians on Ivy League campuses. The article was published in the Sunday, May 22, edition.

Rev. Thomas Breidenthal is dean of religious life at Princeton University. Breidenthal is a scholar, teacher and Episcopal priest. He is the author of the 1997 book Christian Households: The Sanctification of Nearness.

Matt Bennett is the founder of Christian Union, an organization of evangelicals at Ivy League schools whose goal is to reach those who will go on to become part of America's academic elite. The group operates ministry centers at Brown, Cornell and Princeton universities. Bennett, a graduate of Cornell, founded the organization in 2002. Rachel Blair is a student at Princeton and is a member of Christian Union.

Richard Land is president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He and President Bush share the same evangelical faith.

A new documentary from filmmakers Calvin Skaggs and David Van Taylor describes the emergence of evangelical Christianity as a powerful political force. With God on Our Side: George W. Bush and the Rise of the Religious Right is being broadcast on the Sundance Channel. Van Taylor and Skaggs run the documentary company Lumiere Productions.

tine was having limited success in the secular world, decided to pray for help, and landed on his feet in the evangelical church circuit. He has since moved back to playing for larger audiences as well as churchgoers. His DVDs are the new A Conservative Unleashed and last year's Put A Helmet On.

Land is president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He and President Bush share the same evangelical faith.

Along with her ex-husband, Jim Bakker, she built the Praise the Lord televangelist network. She gained a reputation for crying often on television and smearing her abundant mascara. Their empire crumbled when Jim Bakker was convicted of bilking followers out of millions of dollars. She survived the scandal, the divorce, as well as cancer and drug addiction and wrote about it in her memoir I Will Survive: And You Will, Too! She is also starring in the new reality show on the WB network, Surreal Life 2.

Christian missionaries — mainline and evangelical — want to go to Iraq to provide humanitarian aid. But their presence would be troubling for many Muslims who are suspicious that aid is just a cover for another motive — converting Muslims to Christianity. We talk with two individuals with opposing views on the subject: Albert Mohler is a minister and president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He's considered a leader among American evangelicals. Southern Baptists are pledging to go into Iraq to provide humanitarian aid.

Charles Kimball is professor of religion, an ordained Baptist minister, and the author of the new book, When Religion Becomes Evil.

Wattleton headed the organization from 1978 to 1992. She was raised in a fundamentalist Christian family (her mother was a minister), and later studied to be a nurse. Her work as a public-health nurse exposed her to the hardship of women who tried to terminate their pregnancies in the days before legal abortion. Wattleton went on to be executive director of the local Planned Parenthood, and then president of Planned Parenthood nationally. Her new memoir is called "Life on the Line"

Activist and preacher Jim Wallis is the editor of "Sojourners" magazine, and the author of the new book, "The Soul of Politics." In it, he asserts that "the world isn't working," and neither the liberal left nor the conservative right know how to fix it. Wallis says the solution will come from a new morality that combines social justice and personal responsibility.

Journalist and professor Randall Balmer. He hosted the PBS series, "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America," which aired in May. Balmer is Associate Professor of Religion at Barnard College, Columbia University.

Book critic John Leonard says poet Brad Leithauser writes difficult fiction. The author's new novel, Hence, features an apocalyptic view of the modern world. Leonard calls it a contradictory book filled with Nabokovian cleverness.

Evangelical minister Jerry Falwell has cultivated a network of political, educational, and media ventures to promote his conservative beliefs in culture and politics. He tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross about how he came to be a Christian, and how he hopes to guide others to the faith.

Brad Allison is an Evangelical pastor in Philadelphia. John Gordon became a Christian in college. His scholarship led him away from religious fundamentalism. He is now the chaplain at Albright College. The two religious leaders speak with Fresh Air listeners about their faith.

Fresh Air broadcasts a special feature produce for the month of October called On This Side of Paradise. The miniseries focuses on the state of religion in America today. The first installment features stories of people who converted to Christianity during their adult lives.