One of my favorite “jobs” while serving on the board of the Religion News Association (RNA, a professional association for people who report on religion in the news media, has been overseeing the William A. Reed Lifetime Achievement Award.
In preparation for giving out the prize, I get the chance to interview the recipient about their life and work. These conversations go beyond the “5ws,” offering me the opportunity to listen and learn from reporters who have done some of the best, longstanding reporting on religion over the last several decades.
This year, like each before, it was an honor to interview and profile David Briggs, veteran religion reporter best known for his years with The Associated Press in the 1990s.
Briggs covered three popes, seven presidents and almost too many church conventions to count. But far and away, he said, the most impactful interviews he ever conducted were with survivors and victims of abuse by religious organizations and clergy. “Those interviews became some of the defining moments of my life,” Briggs said. “Over and over again, they invited me into their homes, into their lives, to share their stories.”
In Ohio, where Briggs covered religion for The Cleveland Plain Dealer, he wrote story after story about Mainline Protestant leaders and evangelicals, Jewish organizations and clergy of all kinds who broke the sacred trust given to them by abusing the vulnerable. Along the way, he angered plenty of people across the religious spectrum, he said. But it didn’t matter much to Briggs. He was there for those who shared their stories.
“I kept up with a great number of those people — over 90 of these individuals — over the years,” he said, “and those are still the stories that stick with me.”
For his contributions to the beat, long-term commitment to RNA and service to its members, Briggs will be honored with the 2025 William A. Reed Lifetime Achievement Award at a banquet on April 5 at the Religion News Association’s Annual Conference, in Arlington, Virginia.
