Dear Revealer readers, 

I am delighted to share some wonderful news. Last month, the Religion News Association, the professional organization for religion journalism, awarded The Revealer with the organization’s first-place prize for “Excellence in Magazine Overall Religion Coverage,” the highest award for a print or online magazine. We are thrilled with this honor!

The Revealer Editor, Brett Krutzsch

The award was for The Revealer’s special issue on “The Threat of Christian Nationalism,” which we published in October 2024. The articles in the special issue remain as relevant today as when we published them several months ago. If you haven’t read the special issue, I encourage you to do so. It covers such things as why people who support Christian nationalism are more likely to support authoritarianism and political violence, the push for white Christians to have more children, Charismatic Christian Paula White-Cain as Trump’s spiritual advisor, the organizations working to erode democracy, and how to push back against this anti-democratic and Christian nationalist momentum. You can find the award-winning special issue here. And, let me formally congratulate the authors in the special issue: Katherine Stewart, Andrew Whitehead, Matthew D. Taylor, Bradley Onishi, Sammuel Perry, and Sophie Bjork-James. Their research and writing about Christian nationalism are of great value to all of us.

And, we have even more exciting news! The Religion News Association also honored The Revealer’s columnist, Gillian Frank, with the second-place prize for “Excellence in Commentary on Religion” for the articles in his “More than Missionary” column. The column explores gender, sexuality, reproductive rights, and religion. If you haven’t read his column, I encourage you to check it out. You can find his award-winning “More than Missionary” column here. Congrats, Gill!

We greatly appreciate this recognition for The Revealer and for our writers. And, we are committed to continuing to provide you with high-caliber writing about religion. To that end, our May issue explores religion around the globe. The issue opens with Gillian Frank’s newest installment in his now award-winning “More than Missionary” column with “A Life in the Struggle for Reproductive Freedom,” where he explores the doctors and religious organizations that risked everything to provide abortion and reproductive healthcare before Roe v. Wade and what lessons those individuals and organizations offer us today. From there, we head to Russia, where in, “The Political Importance of Orthodox Christian Literature in Putin’s Russia,” Tim Brinkhof examines the role of religious literature in providing support for Putin’s regime, including his invasion of Ukraine and his antagonism against the West. After that, we head to India, where in “The Sikh State Built on Migration Abroad Now Wrestles with Migration Within,” Anuj Behal investigates discrimination against migrants in Punjab, a majority-Sikh state traditionally known for its welcoming hospitality and for sending many of its own residents overseas as migrants themselves. From there, we venture to Turkey, where in “The Sweet Taste of Prayer,” Lisa Morrow explores the Muslim Turkish tradition of distributing free sweet, fried balls of dough after someone has died and on special occasions. Morrow investigates the history of this custom and what it reveals about life in Turkey today. After that, we return to the United States to look at two examples of religion and activism. In “Greg Bourke, Gay Catholic Activist, on Why It’s More Important to Stay and Fight,” Jerry Portwood interviews one of the plaintiffs in Obergefell v. Hodges about his Catholic faith, the role it played in his fight for marriage equality, and his legal battle against the Boy Scouts of America when the organization fired him for being gay. Then, in “Spiritual Wellness as a Tool to Combat Racism,” an excerpt from Black Panther Woman: The Political and Spiritual Life of Ericka Huggins, Mary Frances Phillips discusses a prominent female member of the Black Panther Party and the spiritual practices she cultivated to continue her fight for racial justice. And, for our final article in the May issue, in “Americans Leaving Religion,” an excerpt from Goodbye Religion: The Causes and Consequences of Secularization, Ryan T. Cragun and Jesse M. Smith investigate why so many people are no longer interested in organized religion and what that means for the United States today and in the decades to come.

The May issue also includes the newest episode of The Revealer podcast: “A Black Panther Woman, Spirituality, and Today’s Activism.” Mary Frances Phillips joins us to discuss what exactly the Black Panther Party was, what it set out to achieve, and what parallels exist between today and when the Black Panthers first started. We also discuss Ericka Huggins, a prominent female member of the Black Panther Party, the spiritual wellness practices she developed to sustain her activism, how those practices helped others, and what lessons all of this offers today’s activists. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

As I think about these most recent awards for The Revealer, both for the special issue on Christian nationalism and for Gillian Frank’s column on religion and reproductive rights, I am struck by how I wish neither topic was so urgent. But both topics are incredibly important right now. And because of that, I am delighted we are able to provide a space for such astute and necessary writing about these issues. It fortifies my conviction about how vital this work is today. And it solidifies my commitment for The Revealer to continue providing you with incisive writing about religion in today’s world.

Yours,
Brett Krutzsch, Ph.D.