Dear Revealer readers,

This summer, I had the opportunity to return to my high school for the first time in more than twenty years so I could sign the library’s copy of my book. As the head librarian pointed out changes to the library, we reminisced about the libraries of our youths, of card catalogues, the Dewey Decimal System, learning how to use online databases, and checking out massive stacks of books to write research papers. A world before Google, Amazon, and social media. And before artificial intelligence.

Revealer Editor, Brett Krutzsch

When I returned to work after that trip, I was alerted to the possibility that portions of an article we published earlier this year were potentially AI-generated. Once we concluded that AI wrote some of that article, we removed the article from our website. For us, the use of generative AI goes against what we value at The Revealer and the integrity we bring to the articles we publish and the podcast episodes we produce.

In response to that discovery, I began a conversation with Dr. Elayne Oliphant, director of the Center for Religion and Media at NYU (The Revealer’s publisher), about artificial intelligence and this magazine. We believe strongly that our readers, especially in this era of mass disinformation, should be able to trust what we publish in The Revealer and know that it was work created, researched, and written by humans. In turn, we have written a statement about generative AI and this magazine:

Since its founding in 2003, The Revealer has investigated connections between religious worlds and diverse media forms, and we have long been interested in how humans shape and are shaped by the tools we create. The human, however, has always been central to the questions that drive our work at The Revealer. As such, in an age of artificial intelligence, we remain committed to offering human writing, reflection, and insights. We do not accept pitches or articles written in whole or in part by artificial intelligence and we do our best to ensure we publish work that meets high standards of human-produced ideas and writing.

While we may report on religion and artificial intelligence, from how religious leaders use AI to how AI misunderstands religious phenomena, our work is driven by human analysis, not the other way around. We will continue to provide a space for academics, journalists, and freelance writers to inform the public about the diverse ways religion appears in and shapes our world. Their voices, their insights, and their writing is as important as ever.

With this commitment to providing top-quality, human-authored articles about religion, I am happy to share The Revealer’s September issue with you. The issue opens with the newest installment of Noah Berlatsky’s “Skeptic’s Corner” column with “Democracy Requires Religious Pluralism.” In the piece, Berlatsky considers arguments made in the new book Kaleidoscope: Pluralism, White Supremacy, and American Religious History about what it takes to combat Christian nationalism, and then turns, instead, to examples found in New York City as models for embracing religious and racial diversity so democracy can thrive. Then, in “Hindu Nationalism’s New Frontiers, from Sri Lanka to the United States,” Anuj Behal investigates how Hindu nationalism is spreading beyond India’s borders and what that exposes about the growing global movement of Hindu nationalism right now. After that, in “How Jewish Food Became American,” Adrienne Krone offers a review of the new book Recipes for the Melting Pot and considers how food became a conduit for Jewish immigrants to assimilate and, in turn, how American cuisine changed as it added Jewish elements. Then, we are offering two book excerpts. In the first, “Compacts of Silence,” an excerpt from Whispers in the Pews: Evangelical Uniformity in Divided America, Amy D. McDowell explores how a Southern Christian community refrains from talking about or acknowledging queer people so the church can maintain its appearance as a welcoming one. And, in “Why I Quit Church—and Why I’m Not Alone,” an excerpt from Damned If She Does: Why Women Quit Church and What It Means for the Future of Religion, Sarah Stankorb considers why so many American Christian women have exited organized religion in recent decades.

The September issue also includes the newest episode of The Revealer podcast: “Christian Women Empowering Right-Wing Politics.” Katie Gaddini, author of the book Esther’s Army: The Christian Women Who Power the American Right, joins us to discuss what unites Christian women on the right and how they empower rightwing politics. We explore how they see themselves and their fellow conservatives, how they view issues of gender and race, and what people on the political left can do to try to get these women to care about equality and justice. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

As artificial intelligence makes rapid changes to the world, we at The Revealer remain steadfastly committed to human curiosity, research, reporting, conversations, and writing. We will continue to provide high-quality content about religion in this ever-changing landscape. And it will be work that has been created, executed, and completed by humans.

Yours,
Brett Krutzsch, Ph.D.

P.S. Our next issue is our yearly special issue and we can’t wait for you to see it! The special issue’s theme will be “Religion and Democracy.” Look for it the first week of October.