NOTE: This piece was originally published at our Substack newsletter A Public Witness.
The Associated Church Press, the oldest interdenominational religious press association in the U.S., recently honored Baptizing America with its top award for nonfiction books published in 2024. The group also gave four awards to Word&Way, including two first place honors for A Public Witness.
The ACP emerged at a 1916 meeting of the Federal Council of Churches (the main forerunner to the National Council of Churches) in St. Louis, Missouri, as editors of various denominational publications decided they should start meeting together. Today, its members include the leading publications in mainline Protestant life as well as some Catholic and evangelical publications.
During the ACP annual convention in Chicago, Illinois, Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood’s book Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism won the Award of Excellence (the top honor) in the nonfiction books category. A judge wrote, “This is an important book for our time and the authors help make sense of a growing movement of Christian Nationalism and its effect on democracy.” The award follows a Best in Class in books honor for Baptizing America from the Religion Communicators Council.
“These awards are encouraging because they show more and more people of faith are recognizing that Christian Nationalism is a rising threat to democracy and to the freedom of religion in the United States,” said Brad Lyons, president and publisher of Chalice Press. “Baptizing America holds a mirror up to the mainline churches that dominated American culture for decades and helps us recognize the error of our ways — and how we need to change our ways and undo the damage that has been done. Baptizing America is a must-read for Christians who are allies for marginalized communities being hurt by Christian Nationalism.”
In addition to the award for Baptizing America, Word&Way received four awards from the ACP (with the first three pieces published at A Public Witness):
- 1st place in “Theological Reflection – Long Format” for “Stopping the ‘Jezebel Spirit.’”
- 1st place in “Seasonal Article” for “The War on Valentine’s Day.”
- 3rd place in “Photo Essay – Online Media” for “Our Lord in the Attic.”
- 3rd place in “Denominational Politics – Short Format” for “Progressive Baptists Call for Gaza Ceasefire.”
Word&Way also received two awards this week from the Evangelical Press Association during their annual convention in Branson, Missouri:
- 1st place in “Editorial” for “The Lord Was Not in the Earthquake.”
- 4th place in “e-newsletter” for the weekly roundups here at A Public Witness.
The EPA started in 1948, and Kaylor was one of the speakers at this year’s convention. These six awards from the ACP and the EPA add to the seven that Word&Way received recently from the Religion Communicators Council.
“It’s encouraging to receive such honors from our peers in religious journalism,” Kaylor said. “Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve won 10 awards for A Public Witness, one for Unsettling Advent, and two for pieces published at wordandway.org. These awards demonstrate our commitment to providing our readers with quality content. And we couldn’t do it without the support of our paid subscribers.”
“It’s also rewarding to receive the awards for Baptizing America,” Kaylor added. “The endorsement of the book from the ACP, which is the gathering of mainline Protestant journalists and communicators, is particularly nice since mainline Protestants are the community we primarily wrote about and for.”
In addition to the awards from the ACP and the RCC, Baptizing America was Chalice Press’s bestselling book in 2024 and topped the nonfiction bestseller list in Oklahoma. It’s also been positively reviewed by Baptist News Global, Church & State, Sojourners, The Christian Century, The Living Church, The Presbyterian Outlook, and other publications.
A Public Witness is a reader-supported publication of Word&Way. To receive new posts and support our journalism ministry, subscribe today.
