🚨 Religion Is Always In The Room: D.C. Shooting Aftermath Proves It Once Again 🔌
Weekend Plug-in 🔌
Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” meets readers at the intersection of faith and news. Click to join nearly 10,000 subscribers who get this column delivered straight to their inbox. Got feedback or ideas? Email Bobby Ross Jr.
DECATUR, Ga. — I was attending the annual awards banquet of the Religion News Association when news broke Saturday night of shots fired outside the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Clemente Lisi, Religion Unplugged’s executive editor, was sitting next to me and informed me the Secret Service had rushed President Donald Trump off stage.
In an Atlanta-area hotel ballroom surrounded by Godbeat pros, I immediately thought: There’ll be a religion angle to this apparent assassination attempt.
Why?
Because there always is.
Sure enough, details soon emerged that the suspected gunman wrote to family members and suggested his violence was an act of faith to defend the oppressed, as Christianity Today’s Harvest Prude reports.
At Religion News Service, Kathryn Post delves into the “Christian DNA” of Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old California man charged Monday with three felony counts.
“When you read his manifesto, he hates Christians,” Trump told Fox News. “That’s one thing for sure.”
Unlike the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, more than 600 miles away, the RNA banquet proceeded as planned.
In fact, I wondered how many of my journalism colleagues in the room were following the news — and how many had silenced their phones for the evening.
Standing on stage after receiving an award, I couldn’t resist whispering a few details of the breaking story in the ear of Jeff Diamant, RNA’s contest chair.
Bobby Ross Jr. accepts an award at the Religion News Association annual conference in the Atlanta area. (Photo by Clemente Lisi)
Here are a few other notes from RNA’s 77th annual conference:
• WINNERS IN RNA’S Excellence in Religion Reporting Contest included journalists for major outlets such as the New York Times, The Associated Press and NBC News.
But the top prize for Story of the Year went to Jessica Morris of The Roys Report, an independent Christian media outlet founded and edited by Julie Roys.
Morris won first place for her investigation of sexual assault, grooming and substance abuse allegations against former Newsboys frontman Michael Tait.
I enjoyed meeting Eli Federman, a freelancer who sat at the same table as Lisi and me. Federman earned first place for lifestyle and culture commentary for pieces he wrote for the Los Angeles Times, U.S. News and Fox News.
I was honored to receive second place in analysis and explanatory reporting for Weekend Plug-in columns I did on grief and guilt after deadly Texas flooding, a baseball player’s special connection to the first American pope and my brother-in-law’s “miraculous” survival of COVID-19.
Bobby Ross Jr. and Clemente Lisi pose for a photo after the Religion News Association’s awards banquet in the Atlanta area. (Photo by Aaron Earls)
Check out the full list of winners.
• MY FRIEND KIMBERLY WINSTON was recognized with RNA’s 2026 William A. Reed Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Are we fresh out of 80-year-olds!?” Winston, 62, said of her reaction to news that she’d receive the honor.
In a piece for RNA, Emily McFarlan Miller highlights Winston’s career:
There was a time, not that long ago, when there were no journalists reporting on atheism full-time on the religion beat.
In fact, nonbelievers were among the “most despised” populations in the country, according to Kevin Eckstrom, chief strategic communications officer for Interfaith America.
If that seems hard to believe now — when countless headlines are written about the rise of the “nones” — you can thank Kimberly Winston’s reporting for humanizing the humanists.
“She made that community relatable, understandable,” said Eckstrom, who hired Winston in 2012 when he served as editor-in-chief of Religion News Service. He believes she was the first full-time reporter dedicated to covering atheism and freethought.
Winston — a Diet Coke addict like me — and I were among a dozen U.S. journalists who traveled to Israel in 2019 through the American Jewish Committee’s Project Interchange. We were assigned to the same helicopter as our group visited major sites.
Kimberly Winston, bottom left, Jana Riess, David Paulsen and Bobby Ross Jr. pose with their helicopter pilot during a 2019 reporting trip to Israel. (Photo provided by Bobby Ross Jr.)
• ALONG WITH AWARDS, the RNA conference produced actual religion news:
Five years after the pandemic upended religious life across the United States, a new national study shows that many churches are stabilizing — and in some cases rebounding — even as challenges persist.
That’s the lede from Lisi’s coverage of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research’s latest findings, which were released during the religion writers’ meeting.
• FOR THE LAST THREE years, the RNA annual conference has coincided with the local MLB team playing a home game:
What fun!
I organized a group to attend Friday night’s game between the Phillies and the Braves, as I checked Atlanta’s Truist Park off my bucket list — the 24th current MLB stadium where I’ve seen a game.
Lisi and I carpooled to the game with Frank Lockwood, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s religion editor, and Megan Sweas, an editor with the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civil Culture.
Monday is the deadline, by the way, for journalists to apply for $5,000 grants through the USC Center’s Stories of Change in American Religion initiative. Religion Unplugged is one of the media partners for the fellowship program.
A group of Religion News Association members attends a Braves-Phillies game at Truist Park in Atlanta. (Photo provided by Bobby Ross Jr.)
• RNA’S BASEBALL STREAK may end next spring.
Next year’s conference will be in Salt Lake City, which has no MLB team. Then again, I guess I'm not opposed to a minor league game if the Salt Lake Bees, the Triple A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels, are in town.
From a news standpoint, though, next year’s conference should be a big one. It’ll coincide with plans to open the Salt Lake Temple to the public for the first time since 1893.
The Deseret News noted in a story earlier this year:
Millions of people are expected to descend on Salt Lake City during a monthslong public open house for the renovated Salt Lake Temple next year.
The city and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are working together on a plan to handle the crowds touring the historic edifice on Temple Square in the heart of downtown.
“This will certainly be the largest temple open house the church has ever held. It’s been over 130 years since the public has been able to access the Salt Lake Temple,” Marty Stephens, director of government, community and interfaith relations for the church, said noting there were limited tours in 1893 before the temple was dedicated.
The Salt Lake Tribune’s lede made me chuckle:
For Latter-days Saints, the reopening next year of their most iconic House of Lord is going to be heavenly. But for everyone, getting through downtown Salt Lake City for six months may be hell.
There’s simply no way around it: Showcasing the Salt Lake Temple and Utah’s capital to millions of world visitors is going to create traffic snarls.
Maybe I won’t try to Uber to a Bees game in that traffic.
Inside The Godbeat
In a Plug-in column last year titled “Hoops and healing,” I explored why the Thunder’s first NBA championship meant so much to Oklahoma City.
With the 2026 playoffs in full swing, I enjoyed Associated Press sportswriter Cliff Brunt’s recent piece headlined “From tragedy to triumph, the Thunder and their fans bond and put Oklahoma City on the world stage.”
The Final Plug
When I travel, I love packing a lot into my days.
Even by my hefty standards, Sunday was a long one.
I set a 4:30 a.m. Eastern alarm for my 7 a.m. flight from Atlanta. I arrived at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport about 9 a.m. Central and then caught an Uber to the remote lot where I parked my car.
Then I sped to Fort Worth to worship, arriving just three minutes after the 10 a.m. service started. I enjoyed lunch with my parents and brother before driving to Arlington to watch my beloved Texas Rangers play the Oakland Athletics. (I might have mentioned that I’m a little obsessed with baseball.)
Bob and Judy Ross pose for a photo during Sunday lunch with their son Bobby Ross Jr. (Photo by Bobby Ross Jr.)
After the afternoon game, I began the three-hour drive home to Oklahoma City. But a wreck caused a major traffic jam along Interstate 35, so I was delayed.
I finally made it to my house just before 9 p.m. Central, greeted by a very happy basset hound and a very tired wife (she had a long day, too).
Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.
Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 20 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.