Dear Revealer readers,

As I think back on the articles we have published this year, I am struck by the ways so many of them offer a vision for a better and more equitable world. In the past months, our articles have addressed Black Lives Matter protests, the treatment of essential workers, the climate crisis,  LGBTQ equality, and connections between Islamophobia and opposition to wearing face masks. From an editorial perspective, we have tried to offer our readers important insights about the issues facing our country. As the 2020 election approaches, it is clear that if we hope to live in a nation that addresses the issues we have covered, we must do something the Revealer has never before done: endorse a presidential candidate. For the possibility of racial equality, the security of our democracy, the safety of our planet, and the preservation of the separation of church and state, the Revealer endorses Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for President and Vice President of the United States.

In the coming weeks, other publications will offer their reasons for endorsing Biden and Harris. While I could write at length about the need to protect healthcare, combat gun violence, or the White House’s horrific response to the pandemic, I shall focus my attention here on religion. Quite simply, Donald Trump has tethered himself to a well-organized network of white Christian nationalists who want the laws of this country to reflect their religious views. Although a minority of the population, Christian nationalists and the “family values” Christians who support them seek to strip women of the right to control their own bodies. Should he stay in office, we will witness pro-life Christians celebrate the criminalization of abortion while they ignore police killings of Black Americans and the Trump administration’s violence against Black Lives Matter protestors. We will also see renewed efforts to undo the LGBTQ movement’s legal advances. Trump targeted transgender Americans soon after he entered office by prohibiting transgender people from serving in the military. He will not stop there. The white evangelicals and conservative Catholics who support him want more. With control of the courts, a second Trump term means the federal recognition of same-sex marriages will be in jeopardy. And while we witness the separation of church and state erode and far-right Christians use “religious freedom” laws to discriminate against all sorts of people in business, education, housing, and adoption, Trump will continue his discriminatory policies against people from Muslim-majority countries and deepen his support for racist and antisemitic white nationalists.

Revealer Editor, Brett Krutzsch

Although I am confident Biden and Harris have spent more time in churches than Trump, neither seeks to make the country a more avowedly Christian nation. Biden and Harris support women’s bodily autonomy and LGBTQ equality. They will undo the Islamophobic fervor that currently occupies the White House. They will work with progressive religious leaders and people with no religious affiliation to make the country more equitable for people of color and religious minority groups. And they will address the climate crisis and coronavirus pandemic without relinquishing their authority to the strangely married demands of corporate conservatives and anti-science Christians.

With the presidential election weeks away, we felt it necessary not only to endorse Biden and Harris but also to offer a series of articles about religion and politics in today’s world. Our October issue opens with Deonnie Moodie’s “Race, Religion, and the Indian-American Vote,” where she explores why some Indian-Americans are attracted to Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric and how Kamala Harris’s Indian ancestry may help the Biden campaign. In “QAnon, the KKK, and the Exploitation of Antisemitism for Political Power,” Sara Kamali compares QAnon’s antisemitic conspiracy theories and popularity within the Republican Party to the KKK’s political influence during the pandemic of 1918. Next, in an excerpt from The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, Katherine Stewart considers how Christian nationalists have exploited the idea of religious freedom to make the country a more Christian nation. And in “Secular Sex and Social Justice,” Contributing Editor Kali Handelman interviews Janet Jakobsen about her book The Sex Obsession: Perversity and Possibility in American Politics and what it can teach us about today’s political situation.

For those who need a break from the current political climate, our October issue also includes two articles to give you that respite. In “The Secret Life of My Great Communist Aunt: A Hagiography,” Sarah Ngu travels to Malaysia to find a connection with a deceased relative who, like herself, became a family outcast. And in “Mucho Mucho Amor, Mucho Mucho Religion,” J. Barton Scott reviews Netflix’s documentary about Walter Mercado, the eccentric Puerto Rican celebrity astrologer who offers much to consider for those interested in religion.

The October issue also features the newest episode of the Revealer podcast: “Christian Nationalism and the 2020 Election.” Investigative journalist Katherine Stewart joins us to describe what Christian nationalists want if Trump stays in office, why many of them are comfortable with the erosion of democracy, and what people can do who oppose Christian nationalism. You can listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.

As countless polls have shown, the majority of Americans do not like or support Donald Trump. The time has come for that majority to make sure he does not stay in office. The separation of church and state is on the line. Any hope for greater racial equality is on the line. Lives that could have been saved months ago from a pandemic are on the line. Sound the alarm. Get involved in our political process today, tomorrow, and everyday until each ballot is counted. Let none of us wake up in January 2021 and question if we could have done more to prevent a second Trump term. Let us instead awaken with Biden and Harris in office and with the energy to make this country live up to its promises of equality for all.

Yours in hope,
Brett Krutzsch, Ph.D., Editor
Angela Zito, Ph.D., Publisher