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By Bobby Ross Jr. | Religion Unplugged
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.Â
“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.
This column appears in the online magazine Religion Unplugged.
Photo of RNA members at Atlanta Braves game
Faith. Family. Fastballs. 