Dear Revealer readers, 

I am very excited to share that The Revealer has received its first Wilbur Award. Presented by the Religion Communicators Council since 1949, the Wilbur Award “recognizes excellence in the communication of religious issues, values, and themes in public secular media.” Previous recipients of the Wilbur Award include 60 Minutes, CBS Sunday Morning, Vanity Fair, Jane Pauley, and Oprah Winfrey.

Revealer Editor, Brett Krutzsch

This year, the Religion Communicators Council is honoring Niyati Evers’ article “A Radical Reimagining of ‘Never Again’” with the organization’s top prize for Best Opinion Written Work. The article appeared in The Revealer’s December 2025 issue. In the piece, Evers, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, reflects on her parents’ experiences and compares them with those of the people of Gaza, thereby raising important reflections about how victims can become victimizers and what the legacy of Holocaust survivors, as well as those who died, should be today. If you have not read the piece, I highly encourage you to do so. It won the prestigious Wilbur Award, after all, because its merits are many.

Let me offer big congratulations to author Niyati Evers on this award. A piece of writing like this does not simply happen. It comes together after significant time reflecting and crafting it. We are very proud of your accomplishment!

With that good news on our minds, I am happy to share The Revealer’s April issue, which considers how religion is changing, and is being changed, today. The issue opens with Anuj Behal’s “Why Young Indians Are Turning to Astrology Apps for Answers,” where he investigates the popularity of astrology apps in India and how they bridge religious beliefs, emotional support, and current technology to offer people quick comfort on their phones. Then, in “Divine Algorithms and Evangelical Media,” David Zepf examines the viral streaming series The Chosen and how its success came from app users funding future seasons and from storylines that feature biblical characters with issues that resonate today, such as anxiety disorders and autism. After that, in “The Case Against Leo,” A.W. Strouse considers why so many MAGA figures exalt Pope Leo XIII, the namesake for the current pope, and he explores the earlier pope’s anti-democratic writings that align with today’s right-wing political figures. From there, in “Learning from LGTBQ People of Color about Wholeness and Justice in Today’s World,” Dawne Moone and Theresa Tobin share lessons all of us can learn from LGBTQ Christians of color, a group many do not think even exists, about how they fight for recognition and justice. And, in “Envisioning Puerto Rican Muslim Futures,” Ken Chitwood reflects on how Puerto Rican Muslims blend their Puerto Rican heritage with Islam in novel ways that are reflective of both Puerto Rican and Muslim traditions.

The April issue also includes the newest episode of The Revealer podcast: “Puerto Rican Converts to Islam.” Ken Chitwood joins us to discuss reasons why Puerto Ricans are converting to Islam and the longer history of Latino Muslims. We also discuss how Puerto Rican Muslims navigate life as a religious minority in Puerto Rico and throughout the United States; how they approach being a racial and ethnic minority in predominantly Muslim spaces; how they blend their Puerto Rican ethnic identity with their Muslim religious identity; and what Puerto Rican converts to Islam reveal about religion in the Americas today. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

As the articles and podcast episode in this issue attest, the world is changing in myriad ways and religions are changing too because of new technologies, social media, and our political environments. At such times, it can be good to remember that religions and communities have always been changing, evolving, and adapting. That is the nature of things. And as the world changes rapidly, let us approach these changes with a lesson from Niyati Evers’ Wilbur Award-winning article, “A Radical Reimagining of ‘Never Again,’” when she reminds us of our obligation as humans to one another: “We can make Never Again a lived reality: by turning it into a path and a practice. Never Again will I be dehumanized, nor dehumanize. Never Again will I be humiliated, nor humiliate. Never Again will I be oppressed, nor oppress.”

May it be so.

Yours,
Brett Krutzsch, Ph.D.