A ROAD FORWARD IN AN ANXIOUS TIME

Tom Gjelten covers issues of religion, faith and belief for NPR News, a beat that encompasses such areas as the changing religious landscape in America, the formation of personal identity, the role of religion in politics, and social and cultural conflict arising from religious differences. His reporting draws on his many years covering national and international news from posts in Washington and around the world.

In 1986, Gjelten became one of NPR's pioneer foreign correspondents, posted first in Latin America and then in Central Europe. In the years that followed, he covered the wars in Central America, social and political strife in South America, the first Gulf War, the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and the transitions to democracy in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

After returning from his overseas assignments, Gjelten covered U.S. diplomacy and military affairs, first from the State Department and then from the Pentagon. He was reporting live from the Pentagon at the moment it was hit on September 11, 2001, and he was NPR's lead Pentagon reporter during the early war in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq. Gjelten has also reported extensively from Cuba in recent years.

Since joining NPR in 1982 as a labor and education reporter, Gjelten has won numerous awards for his work, including two Overseas Press Club Awards, a George Polk Award, and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a regular panelist on the PBS program Washington Week, and a member of the editorial board at World Affairs Journal. A graduate of the University of Minnesota, he began his professional career as a public school teacher and freelance writer. His new book, A Nation of Nations: A Great American Immigration Story, recounts the impact on America of the 1965 Immigration Act, which officially opened the country's doors to immigrants of color.

Linda Chavez is president of the Becoming American Institute, a non-profit public policy organization in Boulder, Colorado, and a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center in Washington, D.C. She also writes a weekly syndicated column that appears in newspapers across the country and the author of several books. In 2000, Chavez was honored by the Library of Congress as a “Living Legend” for her contributions to America’s cultural and historical legacy. In January 2001, Chavez was President George W. Bush’s nominee for Secretary of Labor until she withdrew her name from consideration.

Chavez has held a number of appointed positions, among them Chairman, National Commission on Migrant Education (1988-1992); White House Director of Public Liaison (1985); Staff Director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1983-1985); and she was a member of the Administrative Conference of the United States (1984-1986). Chavez was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Maryland in 1986. In 1992, she was elected by the United Nations’ Human Rights Commission to serve a four-year term as U.S. Expert to the U.N. Sub-commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.

Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Will Hurd is a proud product of the Texas public school system. He attended John Marshall High School and Texas A&M University, where he majored in Computer Science and served as Student Body President.

After college, Hurd served as an undercover officer in the CIA in the Middle East and South Asia for nearly a decade, collecting intelligence that influenced the national security agenda. Upon leaving the CIA, he became a Senior Advisor with a cybersecurity firm, covering a wide range of complex challenges faced by manufacturers, financial institutions, retailers and critical infrastructure owners. He was also a partner with a strategic advisory firm helping businesses expand into international markets.

In 2015, Hurd was elected to the 114th U.S. Congress and currently serves on the Committee of Oversight and Government Reform and chairs the Information Technology Subcommittee. He also sits on the Committee on Homeland Security and is the Vice Chair of the Border and Maritime Security Subcommittee. In 2017, Hurd was appointed by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan to serve on the House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee, to replace Representative Mike Pompeo upon his confirmation as Director of the CIA.

He is close to his brother Charlie, sister Liz, mother Mary Alice and father Bob, who all live in the district.

Scott McConnell has researched the needs and preferences of church leaders, laity and the unchurched for LifeWay Christian Resources for 20 years. His in-depth studies and national polls have generated relevant insights on today’s church and culture.

Scott received a Bachelor of Science in Economics degree in Marketing and Strategic Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He was mentored in sound survey methodology and actionable decision-focused research as an associate project manager at NAXION, a Philadelphia-based research and consulting firm. This research included segmentation, satisfaction and product development research for Fortune 100 telecommunications and utilities companies.

For 10 years, Scott has led LifeWay Research’s national polling that regularly measures the views of Americans and Protestant pastors. His team’s studies for ministries and business that serve churches have also tested new product ideas, measured the health of churches and denominations, tested packaging, identified motivations and quantified brand perceptions.

Bryant Wright is senior pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia. He served as elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) from June 2010 to June 2012. Wright was born in Columbia, South Carolina, but grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of South Carolina in 1974 and a Master of Divinity from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1980. He received honorary doctorates from SEFOVAN Seminary, Madrid, Spain, in June 2007 and from the University of South Carolina in May 2011.

In 1981 he became the founding pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in northwest metro Atlanta when it was beginning with a few families meeting in an unleased doctor’s office. God has blessed the church with growth to over 7,000 members. Johnson Ferry’s average worship attendance is about 4,000. In 1992 Bryant founded Right From The Heart Ministries, a radio, television and internet ministry that airs 30- to 60-second inspirational spots on secular radio, television, and the internet (rightfromtheheart.org).

Wright is a strong supporter of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force established by the SBC president preceding him, which issued a report that calls for rejuvenation of the SBC with greater emphasis on evangelism and missions. He has called on pastors to try to make more Cooperative Program funding available for missions to unreached people in the world and has said he dreams of seeing every Southern Baptist pastor and church take at least one mission trip. But this last year he publicly declared his support for Syrian immigrants of the Muslim faith which may be recognition one needn't spend lots of travel money to have a large population to feed upon. Johnson Ferry is helping resettle 10 refugee families from Syria and Iran in their community. Their work has been a focus on CBS’s 60 Minutes, The New York Times, and Fox News. Wright calls himself as "a follower of Jesus Christ that believes the Bible" and says "I really don't believe that human beings are ever going to completely reconcile the sovereignty of God and the free will of man". At the 2011 Southern Baptist Convention, Wright joined Tom Elliff, IMB president, in challenging Southern Baptist churches to claim responsibility for reaching all 3,800 unengaged, unreached people groups (UUPG). A UUPG is a distinct people group somewhere in the world with no believers and no one trying to reach them with the gospel.