Sir the Baptist is the stage name of William James Stokes. He is a “preacher’s kid” from the South Side of Chicago and bills himself as the “Hip Hop Chaplain.” His first album, “Saint or Sinner,” was released in May 2017. Jay Cohen at the Tympa Agency is his manager.

Jesse Is Heavyweight is the stage name of Dallas-based rap/hip-hop artist Jesse McDaniel. He is a Southern Baptist and has taken Anthony Pinn and Bun B’s hip-hop and religion course at Rice University.

Su’ad Abdul Khabeer describes herself as a “scholar-artist-activist.” She is an associate professor of American culture and Arab and Muslim American studies at the University of Michigan and the author of Muslim Cool: Race, Religion and Hip Hop in the United States. She wrote and performs a one-woman work called Sampled: Beats of Muslim Life.

Monica R. Miller is an associate professor of Africana studies and religious studies at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., and the author of Religion and Hip Hop.

Manuel Lopez Zafra is an assistant professor of religion at the New College of Florida in Sarasota. He is an expert on Buddhism, especially Tibetan Buddhism, and Hinduism. He also has a popular blog that explores his other interest – religion in popular culture, especially in television and films.

Kelly J. Baker is the editor of Women in Higher Education, a feminist newsletter evaluating the state of women in higher ed. She is also a freelance writer with a doctorate in religious studies, covering several interest areas, including religion, higher education, gender, labor, motherhood and popular culture. She has written two books: Gospel According to […]

Angela Alaimo O’Donnell is a writer, poet and professor of English, creative writing and American Catholic studies at Fordham University in New York City. She serves as associate director of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies. She has written about the intersection of religion and popular music, especially in the work of Bruce Springsteen and […]

Kathryn Lofton is a professor of religious studies, American studies and  history and divinity at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. She has written about the religious content of Oprah Winfrey’s media empire and is knowledgeable about American religion and materialism, especially Christian kitsch.

William B. Lawrence is a professor of American church history and dean of the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and has expressed concern that the debates over homosexuality could lead to lasting schisms.