Dear Revealer readers,

In a year that has been marked by wars, climate disasters, and hate crimes, I’m thrilled to share some happier news. Last month, the Religion News Association, the largest professional organization for religion journalism in the United States, held their annual awards ceremony in Pulitzer Hall at the Columbia School of Journalism. They honored The Revealer with their first-place prize in “Excellence in Magazine Overall Religion Coverage,” the highest award for a print or online magazine.

Revealer Editor, Brett Krutzsch

The award was based on our 2022 special issue on “Trans Lives and Religion.” The issue features articles on transgender and nonbinary Muslims, Buddhists, and Sikhs; Two-Spirit Native Americans; gender diversity in the Talmud, how Christians can support transgender youth; and what we can learn from earlier anti-queer and anti-abortion legislation to help us address today’s anti-trans lobbying. I am tremendously grateful to the Religion News Association for this recognition. And I am especially appreciative for the great care and insights the special issue’s writers brought to this important topic. Congratulations to them for their award-winning work!

With this exciting news, I’m happy to present you with our final issue of 2023. Our December issue, like most of The Revealer’s issues, covers a range of cultural, political, and media topics. If, at the end of this tumultuous year, you’re looking for a feel-good article, that’s how we’re opening the December issue. The issue begins with Noah Berlatsky’s “Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas,” where he explores the prevalence of Jewish musicians who created and performed much-beloved Christmas music. Following that, we have another upbeat article on music and religion with Darnise Martin’s “Beyoncé Gives Us a Black, Queer, and Spiritual Renaissance,” where she considers how Beyoncé’s Renaissance album and tour present the world with important lessons in Black, queer, and African religious cultures. We then move away from a focus on music and, in “Contradictory Conditions,” Ken Chitwood investigates Jewish life in east Germany to see how Jewish communities have rebuilt since the Holocaust and how they are doing today. Then, in “On Cults, Yellowjackets, and Rewatching Shows” Sarah Emanuel reflects on what can happen when we rewatch television shows and offers a review, based on her repeated viewings, of the religious and biblical motifs in the series Yellowjackets. And, for the fifth year in a row, we are presenting our “Winter Reading Recommendations” of books published this year by Revealer writers that we believe you will enjoy.

The December issue also includes the newest episode of the Revealer podcast: “Religion’s Role in Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine.” While great attention has been given these past two months to the war in Israel, we wanted to make sure we continue to focus on Ukraine as well. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko, author of the November 2023 Revealer article “Ukraine’s Orthodox Churches as a Battleground in Russia’s Invasion,” joins us to discuss the place of Orthodox Christianity within Russia’s war against Ukraine. We explore how Russia has historically used the Orthodox Church to influence life in Ukraine, how Russian Orthodox Church leaders justified the invasion, and what Orthodox Christians and other concerned people around the world can do to help bring an end to the war. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

As we say goodbye to 2023, I feel much gratitude to the Religion News Association for their meaningful recognition of our work, as well as to everyone who has written for The Revealer and appeared on our podcast. And I am especially appreciative for all of you, our readers and listeners, for your support. I look forward to “revealing” what we have in store for you in 2024!

Yours,
Brett Krutzsch, Ph.D.

PS. We don’t publish a January issue, so we will be back with a brand-new issue (and introducing a new columnist) in early February 2024!