Dear Revealer readers,

Welcome to our first issue in 2023! We have several exciting things in store for you this year, including celebrating our 20th anniversary this fall! But, as always, our first commitment is to provide you with incisive articles about religion’s place in today’s world.

Revealer Editor, Brett Krutzsch

We are starting the year off by taking a look at issues of power and race within and beyond religious communities. Given recent events, including the Florida governor’s opposition to African American history and the prevalence of white Christian nationalists throughout the country, we are foregrounding connections between power, race, and religion.

Our February issue opens with Philip Deslippe’s “When Misseeing is Believing,” where he explores why people remained in a yoga community even though abuse was rampant, and how their reasons for staying shed light on the cognitive dissonance many people experience when they learn a leader – religious, political, or otherwise – who they revered is not as they had believed. Deslippe’s insights apply far beyond the religious community he studied. Next, in “White Women’s Bodies and the Dilemma of Purity Culture Recovery,” Sara Moslener examines the “post-purity culture” ex-evangelicals who encourage others to reject their churches’ teachings about sex. What she finds is a movement rooted in sexual liberation that is concurrently upholding ideals of white female beauty and unwittingly reinforcing white supremacy.

Our February issue then broadens out to consider white supremacy at the governmental level. In “Suing the FBI and Uncovering a History of White Christian Nationalism,” an excerpt from his new book The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover, Lerone A. Martin shows how the FBI partnered with religious communities for decades to make America a primarily white Christian nation. From there, we head to Europe where, in “Tracing the Spiritual Tradition of Italy’s New Far Right,” John Last provides keen observations about Italy’s recent election of a far-right government, the religious, racial, and philosophical underpinnings of this right-wing move, and how this election connects to broader global politics and, strangely enough, The Lord of the Rings.

The issue concludes by returning to the United States and looking at issues of religion, power, and race here. In “Honk for Jesus and the Influence of Black Megachurches Today,” Ari Colston reviews the movie Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul, where she considers how the satirical film reveals real-life issues of corruption and abuse in megachurches and how, despite such scandals, megachurches continue to influence smaller Black Christian communities throughout the country. And in our “In the News” roundup, Cameron Andersen highlights some of the best writing about religion, power, and race so far in 2023.

Our February issue also features the newest episode of the Revealer podcast: “The FBI and White Christian Nationalism.” Lerone Martin joins us to discuss the place of religion and race at the FBI. We explore why J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI’s long-serving director, believed a Christian America was a safer America, what he did to make that vision a reality, and how knowing that history can help us make sense of the rise in white Christian nationalism today. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

As we settle into 2023, the Revealer remains steadfast in its commitment to exploring how people use religion as a source of power, as a cover for racism, and as a tool to influence laws and the broader culture. We are also committed to showing how religion is not inherently abusive, nor is religion the sole source of racism or white supremacy. We will bring you stories this year, as we always have, on religious communities and people who are working to address systemic racism and the influence of conservative religion in politics. And, as we have been doing for nearly 20 years, we will highlight the nuances and multiplicities of religion’s place in today’s world so all of us have a clearer understanding of what we are facing.

Yours,
Brett Krutzsch, Ph.D.