What a fun night!

The Religion News Association presented its 2022 Awards for Religion Reporting Excellence in a hybrid ceremony Wednesday at Columbia Journalism School in New York City.

Among the highlights:

• Sarah Pulliam Bailey, religion writer for The Washington Post, won for Excellence in Religion News Analysis, including a piece on “Preachers and their $5,000 sneakers.” Even better, Bailey brought her new baby with her to celebrate.

• Tom Gjelten, retired religion correspondent for NPR, won for Religion Story of the Year for his piece “An inconvenient genocide: Why we don’t know more about the Uyghurs” for Moment magazine. (Last week’s Plug-in highlighted the other finalists.)

• Julia Duin, a veteran religion journalist, including her work here at GetReligion, won for Excellence in Religion Reporting at Online-only News Outlets and placed in two other categories. Duin was honored for stories she wrote for National Geographic, Politico and Newsweek. The headline on that Politico piece: “The Christian Prophets Who Say Trump Is Coming Again.”

Other big winners included Jack Jenkins of Religion News Service for Excellence in Religion Reporting at Large Newspapers and Wire Services, Peggy Fletcher Stack of the Salt Lake Tribune for Excellence in Religion Reporting at Small-to-Mid-sized Newspapers and PJ Grisar of The Forward for Excellence in Religion Feature Writing.

Still more winners: Erika Lantz for Excellence in Enterprise Religion Reporting for the podcast “The Turning: The Sisters Who Left,” Eetta Prince-Gibson of Moment magazine for Excellence in Magazine and Non-daily Newspaper Religion Reporting, and Jodi Rudoren of The Forward for Excellence in Religion Commentary.

And finally: Ken Chitwood for Excellence in Nonfiction Religion Books for "The Muslims of Latin America and the Caribbean," Sojourners magazine for Excellence in Magazine Overall Religion Coverage and KALW’s “The Spiritual Edge” for Outstanding Religion News Story in a Radio Broadcast and Outstanding Religion Podcast.

The contest celebrated stories published and broadcast in 2021. Kudos to Christine A. Di Pasquale, RNA’s executive director; Betsy Shirley, RNA’s president; and Jeff Diamant, RNA’s contest chair, for an excellent event.

See the full list of winners on the RNA website.

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. In Branson, God and country serve as red, white and blue comfort food: “Welcome to Branson, Missouri, where the holy trinity of faith, flag and family reign supreme and where an inspirational, God-and-country style of Christian nationalism serves as comfort food for the American soul,” Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana writes.

In a sidebar, Smietana explores how “In the past, Branson and the Ozarks drew liberal Christians — as well as Christian nationalists.”

I found these stories particularly riveting since I made my first trip to Branson this past summer with my parents and sister.

CONTINUE READING: “Best In Religion Journalism: Religion News Association Presents Its Annual Awards” by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion Unplugged.