David has been a journalist for 48 years. Thirty-five of those years he served as a writer and editor for newspapers and then, in 2007, he became the founding Editor of www.ReadTheSpirit.com online magazine and the www.FrontEdgePubishing.com publishing house. The central theme running throughout his career is lifting up the significance of religious diversity.

During the meeting, David spoke about why we tell stories or write letters. Stories are the deepest root that go back to our creation. They bring us back to God. We seek truth because we are part of a community.

He encouraged RCC members to do something every day in spirituality.

He spoke about crisis communications and stressed how important transparency is. David and his staff operate on the principle that if any emails get leaked, they are okay. They ensure all communications going out are on point. In crises management, most important are fairness, accuracy, and balance.

David said, “We refuse to see enemies. We see friends we’ve not yet met.” ReadtheSpirit.com publishing house will publish all people. “Each voice can contribute something to the common good.”

He is a six-time winner of the RCC’s Wilbur Award for major newspapers for projects including coverage of the role of religious groups in the revolutions in Eastern Europe that ended the Cold War and an investigation of the impact of Jack Kevorkian on the spiritual lives of dozens of families who arranged suicides with him.

Now, he publishes weekly columns in the ReadTheSpirit magazine about the latest in religion-related publishing and religious themes in films. He has written profiles of hundreds of authors whose work explores religious themes, including Jimmy Carter, Marcus Borg, Phyllis Tickle, Adam Hamilton, Nadia Bolz Weber, Rob Bell and others. The hallmark of David’s professional work is strengthening professional networks among communicators to collaboratively lift up our work. Among his volunteer work, he serves as communications director of the International Association of Religion Journalists. David welcomes contacts from other communicators at david.crumm@gmail.com

The Nashville Chapter had a great meeting in August at United Methodist Communications. It was a lunch and learn with Holly Meyer, Religion Reporter for The Tennessean. Holly spoke about the changing landscape of religious reporting and the challenges of communicating faith issues through mainstream media.

She gave many personal examples of her experiences in religious reporting including how she came to be a religion reporter – in fact, she is the only religion reporter in the entire USA Today Network. She said there are other reporters who do write religious stories, but she is the only one with that sole focus. You might think this makes sense as Nashville is termed the “Buckle of the Bible Belt.” However, Holly reported that Nashville is practically tied with New York in the percentage of the population that reports “no religious affiliation” with New York’s being 22% in 2016, and Nashville at 21%  (source: The American Values Atlas).