Dear Revealer readers,

I am happy to share some wonderful news. Last month, the Religion News Association, the largest professional organization for religion journalism in the United States, hosted its annual awards ceremony to honor work published in 2020. I am thrilled to announce that the Religion News Association honored the Revealer with “Excellence in Magazine Overall Religion Coverage,” the highest award for a print or online magazine.

Revealer Editor, Brett Krutzsch

I am overjoyed that the Revealer received this recognition. Our writers, especially during 2020, displayed an extraordinary commitment to producing excellent work. In their remarks about the award, the Religion News Association specifically mentioned the Revealer’s special issue on “Religion and Sex Abuse Within and Beyond the Catholic Church” and reported that the Revealer “succeeds in taking the much-scrutinized topic of clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and extending the analysis to similar improprieties found in other diverse religious institutions. The Revealer mines new unexplored territory.” I would like to thank the special issue’s writers as well as everyone who has worked to make the Revealer such a distinct and important publication.

In addition to this award, the Religion News Association honored three of our writers with awards for “Excellence in Religion Commentary.” Congratulations to Kaya Oakes, Tia Pratt, and Rebecca Epstein-Levi for sweeping this category! And, although it did not win, the Revealer Podcast was a Religion News Association finalist for best religion podcast. As they say, it is an honor to be nominated, especially for a podcast that only launched in 2020!

With all of this excitement for the Revealer, I am pleased to bring you our newest issue. Our November issue returns us to our roots with a focus on religion and multiple forms of media. The issue opens with Klaus Yoder’s “Cops and Clergy on TV” where he explores how, for decades, police procedural dramas have relied on Catholicism to portray police as sacred to America’s wellbeing, a trend that continues today in popular shows from Law and Order: SVU to Mare of Easttown despite widespread protests against the police. Next, in “Muslim Marriage Matchmaking Goes Digital,” Hina Husain investigates why young religious Muslims in North America are turning to matrimonial apps, rather than to their mosques or families, to find a spouse. Then, in “Why Jewish Comics are Obsessed with Suffering and Death,” Sarah Emmanuel reflects on Rachel Bloom’s newest stand-up show and the connection between Jewish humor and a preoccupation with death despite modern Judaism’s silence on what happens after we die. To follow that, in “The Fascinating Jesus Film You Probably Haven’t Seen,” Jill Hicks-Keeton reviews an unintentionally funny “faith-based” film and considers what its failures reveal about the world of conservative Christian media today.

Our November issue also includes an interview with journalist Sam Kestenbaum, where he chats with Contributing Editor Kali Handelman in “Insights from a Religion Reporter” about what he has learned covering religion in America for the New York Times. And, the issue features an excerpt from Michael Graziano’s book Errand into the Wilderness of Mirrors: Religion and the History of the CIA, where Graziano describes the “religious approach” American spies undertook in their work overseas.

We are also excited to bring you the newest episode of the Revealer podcast: “Religion and the CIA.” Michael Graziano joins us with captivating stories about the role religion has played in CIA espionage. We explore how the CIA attempts to learn about religious traditions, what has happened when the CIA has tragically misunderstood religious practices across the globe, and how the CIA shifted its perspective on Islam following the end of the Cold War. You can listen to this fascinating episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The recognition the Revealer has received these past few weeks from the Religion News Association and elsewhere has been a delight. You have my commitment, dear readers, that we will continue to bring you the highest quality articles about religion. And we can’t wait for you to see what we have in store for the future!

Yours in appreciation,
Brett Krutzsch, Ph.D.