Faith Angle Michael Cromartie Forum 2026

Liz Bucar is a leading expert in religious ethics. Her research and writing covers a wide range of topics—from sexual reassignment surgery to the politics of religious clothing–but generally focuses on how a deeper understanding religious difference can change our sense of what is right and good. She is the author of four books, including her most recent, Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation (Harvard, 2022) and the award-winning Pious Fashion: How Muslim Women Dress (Harvard, 2017). At Northeastern Bucar teaches courses on sexual ethics, Islam, cultural appropriation, and the popular comparative religion program in Spain that includes a 150-mile hike on the Camino. Her public scholarship has appeared in The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, and Teen Vogue. Bucar is Director of Sacred Writes: Public Scholarship on Religion, a grant-funded project that provides support, resources, and networks for scholars of religion committed to translating the significance of their research to a broader audience.

Dr. Andrew Mark Henry is a scholar of religion and creator of the YouTube channel Religion for Breakfast, where he makes research-driven videos on the academic study of religion for a broad public audience. He is also the co-founder of The Religion Department, an online learning platform offering courses in religious studies.

Peter Wehner is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and the author of The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump. His other books include City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era, which he co-wrote with Michael J. Gerson, and Wealth and Justice: The Morality of Democratic Capitalism. He was formerly a speechwriter for George W. Bush and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and currently serves as a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum. Wehner is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, and his work also appears in publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and National Affairs.

Ashley Parker is a staff writer at The Atlantic and a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner. She previously spent eight years at the Washington Post, where she covered Donald Trump’s first presidency, was White House bureau chief during President Joe Biden’s first two years, and covered the 2024 presidential campaign. Before that, she spent more than a decade at The New York Times, where she covered the 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns and Congress. She is also a political analyst for MS NOW.

Gregory A. Smith is a Senior Associate Director of Research at Pew Research Center, where he studies religion’s role in American public life, including religious change in the U.S., the intersection of religion and politics, American Catholicism, religiously unaffiliated Americans, and many other topics. He has led major public opinion studies, including the Center’s three Religious Landscape Studies and its profiles of religiously unaffiliated Americans, also called “the nones.” Greg has authored numerous survey reports examining Christianity’s role in America’s identity, religion’s role in American society, Americans’ belief in God, the attitudes and beliefs of U.S. Catholics and U.S. Protestants, and Americans’ knowledge about religion, among others. His expertise is frequently cited in prominent media outlets such as NPR, CNN, and The New York Times. Greg holds a doctorate in government from the University of Virginia.

Barbara Bradley Hagerty is a New York Times bestselling author and contributing writer for The Atlantic. Her third book, Bringing Ben Home, tells the story of Ben Spencer, a Black man wrongly convicted and sentenced to life. In large part because of Barb’s reporting, Ben Spencer was exonerated in 2024. Barb worked for NPR for nearly 20 years, covering criminal justice and religion. She’s received the American Women in Radio and Television Award (twice), the National Headliners Award, and the Religion Newswriters Association award for radio reporting. Her work as NPR’s Justice Department correspondent helped the network win the 2001 George Foster Peabody and Overseas Press Club awards after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. She earned a masters of legal studies Yale Law School, when she was awarded a Knight Fellowship for journalists in 1993-94, as well as the Templeton-Cambridge Fellowship in Science and Religion in 2005. Barb lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Devin, and their dogs, Patchett and Ravioli.

Christine Emba writes about ideas for The Washington Post’s Opinions section. She is the author of Rethinking Sex: A Provocation. Before coming to The Post in 2015, Christine was the Hilton Kramer Fellow in Criticism at the New Criterion and a deputy editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit, focusing on technology and innovation. She grew up in Virginia and holds an A.B. in public and international affairs from Princeton University.