Sarah Pulliam Bailey

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Grab a hot drink, sit down, and enjoy some fine religion-beat reporting from 2023

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Grab a hot drink, sit down, and enjoy some fine religion-beat reporting from 2023

For today’s yearend edition, I asked some of the nation’s top religion-beat journalists to share their favorite or most important story they produced during 2023.

It’s a holiday week, so I didn’t catch up with everybody. But once again this year, I sure appreciate my Godbeat colleagues who responded — more than 60 in all.

Feel free to jump straight to the list, but I can’t resist a few quick notes:

• I’m wrapping up four years since launching this version of Plug-in. This column/newsletter goes to more than 10,000 subscribers via email before it’s published at ReligionUnplugged and then here at GetReligion. I’m so grateful for everyone who reads and shares Plug-in. Our goal is to provide the best roundup of religion news anywhere.

• I follow religion-news coverage and save interesting links throughout the week, but I typically write Plug-in early Friday morning. In other words, it’s a deadline labor of love with the typos to prove it. This part-time gig helps me stay on top of news and trends in the world of faith, but my full-time job is serving as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. In 2023, I was blessed to report from a dozen states and four countries (Australia, Cuba, Mexico and Vanuatu). My story from Down Under will publish early next year.

• I’ve spent 33 years in full-time journalism, including nearly a quarter-century focused on religion news (starting with Pope John Paul II’s visit to St. Louis in 1999). I’m inspired by longtime Godbeat pros — such as Adelle M. Banks, Michelle Boorstein, Greg Garrison, Carla Hinton, Frank Lockwood, Terry Mattingly, Bob Smietana, Peter Smith and Peggy Fletcher Stack — who keep producing amazing journalism year after year. And those are just the ones I managed to reach this week. Besides the old-timers, I’m excited about the newcomers — including Joy Ashford and Eric Killelea — covering religion.

• Many of the journalists who shared links found it difficult to pick just one. Several submitted multiple possibilities and asked me to choose, which I was happy to do. Menachem Wecker wins the award for most stories shared with 10. I included two links from only one writer, Clemente Lisi. He is ReligionUnplugged’s executive editor and the boss, after all, and a longtime colleague here at GetReligion.

One Godbeat pro who had no difficulty with her pick was Sarah Pulliam Bailey. The former award-winning religion writer for the Washington Post is “taking a pause to hang out with my girls.” Thus, she quipped, “I wrote exactly one story so I guess this would be it!”

• A confession before we get to the list: I started this year-end approach years ago as a way to do a quick, easy post during the holidays.


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Familiar byline, new location and a complicated Hindu-temple-and-state puzzle

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Familiar byline, new location and a complicated Hindu-temple-and-state puzzle

Under normal circumstances, readers of The New York Times can click on a byline and learn more about the reporter behind a story.

At the moment, there is no URL embedded with the Times byline “Sarah Pulliam Bailey.”

However, faithful religion-news readers will recognize that byline after years of seeing it in The Washington Post (and several other familiar locations before that). Is this step one in a contributing writer role? Readers can only hope.

Now, what about the story under the byline? The double-decker headline is certainly dramatic and readers will discover, in this complicated feature, a story with some familiar church-state law overtones. How does one handle a Hindu-Temple-and-state reference in Associated Press Style? Oh, that headline:

A $96 Million Hindu Temple Opens Amid Accusations of Forced Labor

The temple in Robbinsville, N.J., about 15 years in the making, is believed to be the largest in the Western Hemisphere. But its construction has also been clouded in controversy.

This is a read-it-all story, for several reasons. It’s clear that this story is a door into more coverage of the legal and financial wrangling that are ahead.

Readers can see the essential DNA in this summary material near the top:

The recent opening of Akshardham Mahamandir in Robbinsville, N.J., was a historic moment for Hindus in New Jersey and beyond. The temple, about 15 years in the making, is believed to be the largest in the Western Hemisphere and is expected to draw religious pilgrims and tourists from all over the world.

It has also been clouded in controversy.

Federal law enforcement agents raided the temple construction site in 2021 after workers accused the builders, a prominent Hindu sect with ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and his ruling party, of forced labor, low wages and poor working conditions.


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Tim Keller sought 'winsome' Manhattan apologetics, a goal that became more difficult

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Tim Keller sought 'winsome' Manhattan apologetics, a goal that became more difficult

If one looks up the word “winsome” in a dictionary, here is a typical example of what shows up, via Merriam-Webster: “generally pleasing and engaging often because of a childlike charm and innocence.”

However, a Google search for the term “winsome,” when combined with “Tim Keller,” opens up a window into a completely different world — one closely linked to debates about the meaning of the word “evangelical” in a Donald Trump-era culture.

Frankly, I am not going to go there. What I will do is urge GetReligion readers who visit Twitter to follow the #TimKeller hashtag and check out the waves of tributes in the wake of the passing of one of the most important American evangelicals — defined in terms of doctrine — in recent decades.

Instead of looking at the tsunami of news coverage, I will simply note the obvious — Keller is receiving much, or even most, of this attention because he lived, worked, preached and wrote in New York City. If his career had unfolded in the Bible Belt, mainstream journalists would never have heard of him. Thus, here is the New York Times double-decker headline on its obituary (which ran quickly, but inside the print edition):

The Rev. Timothy Keller, Pioneering Manhattan Evangelist, Dies at 72

Shunning fire and brimstone, he became a best-selling author and founded Redeemer Presbyterian Church, which drew young New Yorkers.

The Gray Lady’s lede offered this:

The Rev. Timothy J. Keller, a best-selling author and theorist of Christianity who performed a modern miracle of his own — establishing a theologically orthodox church in Manhattan that attracted thousands of young professional followers — died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 72.

Yes, we can talk about the accuracy of the word “evangelist” in the headline. Once again, there are mainstream journalists who believe that is simply another way to say “evangelical.” Unless I missed something, Keller was not active in holding the kinds of public events — think Billy Graham “crusades” — normally associated with public evangelism. Were there some Central Park rallies with Keller sermons and altar calls that I missed? Please let me know.

What he was, of course, was a church builder and an “apologist” for small-o orthodox Christianity, of the Reformed form,” both in preaching and in writing — in books and a host of other forms.


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With her newsworthy 'firsts,' don't ignore religion angles in Nikki Haley v. Donald Trump

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With her newsworthy 'firsts,' don't ignore religion angles in Nikki Haley v. Donald Trump

As a woman and as a child of immigrants from India, new presidential candidate Nikki Haley has scored notable career “firsts.”

But the media shouldn’t ignore that her life story is more religiously intriguing than any of the 16 Republicans on CNN’s list of other potential challengers to Donald Trump. She’s been regularly subjected to questions about conversion from her parents’ Sikh religious faith to Christianity at age 24.

Moreover, Haley right now has a link to a huge 2023 story, the global split in the United Methodist Church. Haley and family are members of Mt. Horeb church in Lexington, South Carolina’s largest UMC congregation with 5,000-plus members.

Mark your calendars: On February 26 the congregation meets to decide whether to leave the denomination after 132 years due to progressive trends in the denomination’s doctrines and discipline that conservatives believe will undermine the Bible’s authority, including on “sexual ethics.” Local coverage here: “SC’s largest United Methodist Church prepares to leave denomination.” Two-thirds approval will be needed to depart.

This doctrinal dispute may not matter in Republican primaries, but it’s easy to imagine Democrats highlighting religious affiliation and LGBTQ concerns if underdog Haley manages to win the Republican nomination for president or vice president.

Already, LGBTQNation and People For the American Way’s Right Wing Watch are on the warpath. Note the targeting of Haley’s friend Pastor John Hagee, who prayed at her campaign launch. As a candidate, she will need strong support from cultural conservatives, which will require clear stands on issues linked to parental rights, religious liberty and abortion.

Born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa and raised in Sikhism, Haley was encouraged by her parents to visit varied churches and understand the surrounding culture. She married husband Michael in both Sikh and Methodist ceremonies and soon after converted to Christianity.


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Plug-In: Religion-beat highlights -- Religion News Association presents its annual awards

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Plug-In: Religion-beat highlights -- Religion News Association presents its annual awards

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.”


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More Elizabeth II coverage: Washington Post goes deep on her Billy Graham contacts

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More Elizabeth II coverage: Washington Post goes deep on her Billy Graham contacts

Confession: I am still paying next to zero attention to American telly when it comes to rites linked to the death of Queen Elizabeth II. I’m tuned into BBC World and, via YouTube, streaming Sky News.

The few times I’ve flipped over to the major U.S. networks left me with the same impression as before — that the Royal Family is viewed as kind of a cleaned-up version of the Kardashians, with the queen as a sad, nobel celebrity matriarch. See this earlier post: “Elizabeth the Great: Why do many journalists choose to edit faith out of her Christmas talks?”

I think the big gaps (other than details about her faith) have been any sense of (a) the gravitas added by her World War II service, including her work driving an Army ambulance. Also, it’s poignant that, (b) until the stunning abdication of King Edward VIII, she was raised with zero expectation of becoming queen. This relatively normal childhood (until age 10) created tight ties to her parents and shaped her views on family.

Yes, the BBC has had a very heavy emphasis on the admiration for the queen seen in mainline, establishment churches and minority faiths. At some point I would like to know if the admiration for Elizabeth II common among American evangelicals also exists in the UK. Click here for a roundup of that, including these typical remarks from Bishop Andrew Forster of the Church of Ireland:

"Throughout her life she set Christ, and his message and his teaching, as the primary thing that has helped her and blessed her and I think made her into the incredible monarch, sovereign that she was."

Bishop Forster described the late Queen as the "grandmother of the nation".

"Maybe it was because people understood that she had an understanding of some of the issues that we might face behind closed doors, some of the issues of increased frailty, of family strife — there was that sense of a grandmotherly figure who understood the challenges of life," he said.

In my previous post, I noted that a Washington Post feature about the queen’s “most memorable remarks” that said her public appearances were “peppered with words of wisdom, faith and occasionally personal reflections.” There was content about her Christmas messages, while omitting any faith content.

However, the religion desk — veteran Sarah Pulliam Bailey (a former GetReligion contributor) — went in depth on one of the most interesting religion-news angles from the queen’s long life: “Fact checking ‘The Crown’: Queen Elizabeth’s faith and her close relationship with preacher Billy Graham.”


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Plug-In: Five newsworthy faith facts about the life and work of Queen Elizabeth II

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Plug-In: Five newsworthy faith facts about the life and work of Queen Elizabeth II

When news broke Thursday of Queen Elizabeth II’s death at age 96, I immediately consulted with the leading expert of her 70 years on the throne I know: my wife, Tamie. Seriously, I texted my bride of 32 years.

“Yes, I’ve been watching,” she replied. “The news and social, that is.”

A few years ago, Tamie, a fellow writer, sent the queen a letter and received one back in an enveloped stamped “Royal Mail” from Buckingham Palace.

“She never sat for an interview, so a few documentaries are the closest thing to hearing her asked/answering questions,” Tamie told me. “I thought it was worth writing to tell her how much I enjoyed it, and this response came a few weeks later on her behalf.”

“The Queen wishes me to write and thank you for your card and very kind message,” the reply said.

Did Elizabeth actually see my wife’s letter? Tamie has no way of knowing. I’m a skeptical journalist, so I’m guessing not. But it’s cool to imagine that she did.

In the meantime, here are five facts about religion in the life of Elizabeth, who wrote the foreword to a 2016 British Bible Society book titled “The Servant Queen and the King She Serves” (that king being Jesus):

(1) She was the official head of the Church of England.

The Associated Press obituary by Danica Kirka, Jill Lawless and Sylvia Hui explains:

In Britain’s constitutional monarchy, the queen is head of state but has little direct power; in her official actions she does what the government orders. However, she was not without influence. The queen, officially the head of the Church of England, once reportedly commented that there was nothing she could do legally to block the appointment of a bishop, “but I can always say that I should like more information. That is an indication that the prime minister will not miss.”

(2) She spoke openly about her Christian faith.

Writing for Religion News Service, Catherine Pepinster notes:


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Prayers and laments in Uvalde: 'May God heal their little hearts, their little souls'

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Prayers and laments in Uvalde: 'May God heal their little hearts, their little souls'

Another week.

Another mass shooting — this time at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

I lack the words to convey the enormity of this tragedy. Instead, as we mourn the 19 innocent children and two teachers slain Tuesday, let’s reflect on these expressions of faith and lament:

“We don’t know what to pray. … We just know we’re hurting, and our God hurts with us.” — Zach Young, worship pastor for Crossroads Community Church in San Antonio (via San Antonio Express-News story by Jacob Beltran)

“We’re just trying to encourage each other and trying to get through this.” — John Juhasz, outreach minister for Getty Street Church of Christ in Uvalde (via story by Washington Post team)

“The only way we can fix this country is to get down on our knees and humble ourselves before God. I am here to support this community and to ask God to heal our land.” — Jennifer Fry, mother of two young children, interviewed at a prayer vigil in Uvalde (via story by Wall Street Journal team)

“We may not understand what happened … but we seek the Lord, as best we can.” — Carlos Contreras, minister at Primera Iglesia Bautista (First Baptist Church) in Uvalde (via Texas Tribune story by Erin Douglas and Jason Beeferman)

“Prayer should be where we start, not where we finish. If we were praying genuine prayers about gun violence, we would see a lot more genuine action.” — Taylor Schumann, author of ”When Thoughts and Prayers Aren’t Enough: A Shooting Survivor’s Journey Into the Realities of Gun Violence” (via Religion News Service story by Emily McFarlan Miller)

“The Catholic Church consistently calls for the protection of all life; and these mass shootings are a most pressing life issue on which all in society must act — elected leaders and citizens alike.” — Catholic Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio (via America story by Michael O’Loughlin).


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Plug-In bonus: Southern Baptist sexual-abuse probe uncovers apocalyptic sins and crimes

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Plug-In bonus: Southern Baptist sexual-abuse probe uncovers apocalyptic sins and crimes

“It is an apocalypse,” declares Russell Moore, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

It is “far worse” than anything the Rev. Ed Litton, the 13.7 million-member denomination’s president, had anticipated, report the New York Times’ Ruth Graham and Elizabeth Dias.

It is a “bombshell” (per the Houston Chronicle’s Robert Downen and John Tedesco). It is “historic” (The Tennessean’s Liam Adams). It is a “blockbuster report” (Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana).

If you cheered for the movie Spotlight when it won an academy award, you will want to read this.

"Bombshell 400-page report finds Southern Baptist leaders routinely silenced sexual abuse survivors." https://t.co/GbTbd6M91f via @Froomkin

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) May 23, 2022

Sunday brought the long-awaited release of an independent investigation into sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention, and damning might be too feeble a word to characterize the findings.

The bottom line, according to Guidepost Solutions’ 288-page report:

An unprecedented investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention’s top governing body found that an influential group of Baptist leaders systematically ignored, belittled and intimidated survivors of sexual abuse for the past two decades while protecting the legal interests of churches accused of harboring abusers.

The claims are “expected to send shock waves throughout a conservative Christian community that has had intense internal battles over how to handle sex abuse” (Washington Post’s Sarah Pulliam Bailey).


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