‘The Bible According to Christian Nationalists’ Wins Top Award From Religion Communicators Council

Word&Way also garners two Best in Class awards.

The Religion Communicators Council, an interfaith organization of communications professionals, named The Bible According to Christian Nationalists by Brian Kaylor as the top religious book of 2025. The RCC on Thursday (April 16) also presented Word&Way with two Best in Class awards.

Founded in 1929, the RCC brings together leading faith-based professionals in journalism, public relations, advertising, and development. Each year, the RCC gives out its DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Awards to recognize excellence in religious communications and public relations. The group also presents its Wilbur Awards to recognize excellence in religious coverage by secular media, which this year included an award for Diana Butler Bass’s book A Beautiful Year.

Last year, RCC gave Kaylor and Beau Underwood’s book Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism the non-fiction adult book category award and the overall Best in Class for Books at its DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Awards ceremony. This year, Kaylor repeated his wins in that book category and the overall Best in Class for Books. The Bible According to Christian Nationalists was also named the overall Best in Show, the top honor given to recognize one of the twelve class winners.

“Already blown away by winning the book award for the second year in a row, I was stunned by the Best in Show honor,” Kaylor said. “This recognition is encouraging and humbling. And I hope it will inspire more people to check out the book, which is unfortunately much-needed in this moment as our sacred texts are regularly being co-opted and misused.”

In addition to the awards for The Bible According to Christian Nationalists, Word&Way also took home two top honors from the RCC. Kaylor’s piece “The Surprising Story of How Speaker Johnson Read a Fake Jefferson Prayer” won the magazine feature category and Best in Class for Writing for Periodicals. And our Unsettling Advent devotionals won the editorial series category and Best in Class for Specialized Writing. This marks the third Best in Class win in four years for Unsettling Advent.

Three other entries from A Public Witness also received RCC awards. Kaylor won two more categories: in editorial for “Chris Tomlin’s Worshipwashing of Charlie Kirk” and in photography feature series for “The Gospel According to Trump Stores.” And Kaylor’s piece “Baptist Pastor Shot in Leg by Officer During All Saints’ Day March Outside ICE Facility” received a second-place recognition in the magazine single article category.

At a different award ceremony this week, the Baptist Communicators Association awarded Kaylor second place in the long news article category for his piece “Global Baptists Gather Down Under to Challenge Injustices and Nationalism.”

“As a small publication, these awards are particularly meaningful,” Kaylor said. “They also demonstrate our commitment to our readers to produce quality journalism. But none of it would be possible without the support of our paid subscribers and donors. We will build on this work to continue to report stories that need to be told.”