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).