Year End Editorial
2025 in Review
Here at American Reformer, we want to rebuild American Protestantism—you’ve heard this from us before no doubt—a “civilizational Protestantism,” as our Executive Director, Josh Abbotoy, recently put it. “Recovering civilizational Protestantism ultimately means recovering the courage to act as though Christianity belongs not only in hearts and homes, but in shared civic life. The question is not whether Evangelicals have the resources to do this. It is whether they are prepared to believe, once again, that they should.” This has been the message and mission of American Reformer for now, it is hard to believe, going on five years.
Much has changed in America since we began, but the need for a renewed, vigorous, and self-confident Protestantism has not. I was recently rereading an essay by Aaron Renn and Joshua Mitchell published in the compendium, Up from Conservatism (2023). Protestants, especially Evangelical Protestants, have been treated as second class citizens in the conservative movement. And yet, America has always been, and even now remains, a Protestant country. Its problems are, therefore, Protestant problems and only Protestants are capable of addressing them. There is much work to be done and, I am proud to say, no other organization more than American Reformer has understood the national need for a revitalized Protestantism and attempted to articulate what that can and should look like. Much of this work involves issue spotting and development of historical perspective. Nevertheless, we seek to cast a positive vision for the future.
As we approach our fifth year of existence, and the two hundred and fiftieth year of our great nation’s founding–the two providentially coincide–we are more determined than ever to provide American Protestants with political and cultural analysis rooted in our rich tradition and addressed to the challenges of our day. As is our annual custom, however, and before we launch headlong into a new year, it is only right for us to look back at how God has blessed our work this past year.
In 2024, we saw our readership and engagement again grow as it has for the past several years. Just as important, the quality of our authors and articles continues to improve, as does the quality of responses and interactions online. There is no official metric of success for a publication, especially one like ours for which there are few blueprints and fewer roadmaps, but these markers of improvement just mentioned are surely among them. Per usual, as a sample of the more than 350 articles we published this year, we give you the most read essays of 2024.
Top Articles
The assassination of Charlie Kirk, which seems like a lifetime ago, changed everything. Charlie’s impact on both the conservative movement and the lives of millions of individuals was not truly understood or appreciated until after his death. Perhaps, this was because everyone expected to have many more years with him, or perhaps this was because his focus was on the younger generations.
Whatever the reason, Charlie’s death instigated a mass of emotion and reflection. Undoubtedly, we will be talking about it for years, or at least, I hope so. It is no exaggeration to call it, as many did, the Kennedy assassination of our day. Decades occurred within days.
In the wake of his death, the editorial team at American Reformer decided that we would publish as many obituaries and reminiscences as came our way as we could. We received many. Far and away the most read—the most read essay of the year, in fact—was one from Josh Daws wherein he reflects on the significance of Charlie Kirk to the generation his sons belong to.
Another essay on Kirk from Abigail Dodds was our third most read article of the year. In the most memorable line of her essay, Dodds instructed women to not “not grab at the arms of our men, trying to keep them out of the arena.” Rather, women should encourage their fathers, husbands, and sons to enter the fray. Ben Crenshaw’s look at Kirk’s political theology was another big hit and must read.
The only event of 2025 that rivaled the assassination of Charlie Kirk was the memorial service for Charlie Kirk. People could not stop talking about it, and for good reason. Not in our lifetime has there been a more rousing display of public Christianity. Jamie Bambrick, looking on from across the pond, provided memorable (and hopeful) commentary on the whole thing.
Highly read as well were longform reporting from Jon Harris on how Evangelical churches are being subverted from within, and Stephen Wolfe’s “The Christian Defense of Inequality.” We also ran a noteworthy print symposium on Boomers and the impending generational transfer featuring Rusty Reno, C.R. Wiley, and Aaron Renn. Be on the lookout early 2026 for several more symposia that are in the works now including one on the legacy of Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), another on the question of Evangelical elites, and one on the past and future of American Protestantism.
In addition to our work at the journal and our weekly podcast, our Cotton Mather Fellowship, steered ably by our Director of Education, Colin Redemer, graduated its fourth class this year. Applications for the 2026 class open soon!
When we talk about a strong American Protestantism, we mean that all denominations and traditions that have contributed to our indigenous expression of Christianity must be strong and confessionally faithful. We are a big tent, but we want Presbyterians, Baptists, and Anglicans to be serious about, and dedicated to, the particulars of their respective traditions. Our commentary often centers on political and social issues, but we recognize the need for healthy denominations. We express this fact in several of our initiatives, first and foremost, the Center for Baptist Leadership, of which more in a moment.
In 2025, we also announced that The North American Anglican (TNAA) had joined our organization. For a decade, TNAA has been a standard bearer for Anglican orthodoxy, thought, and history. We are thrilled to have them on board and hope that our Anglican readers will consider financially supporting the growth of TNAA. For a sample of the writing featured at TNAA this year, check out this statement of Anglican political thought from the editors. There you’ll also find commentary on the Thirty-nine Articles, poetry, and cultural essays.
Center for Baptist Leadership (CBL)
The Center for Baptist Leadership had a breakout year, both securing major conservative reforms in the SBC and representing conservative evangelicals at the highest levels of American government.
In February, CBL broke an original report that an SBC entity had taken funds from the Biden Administration’s refugee resettlement grant. In March, William Wolfe represented CBL in a meeting with the White House Faith Office to discuss major faith-based policy priorities for the Trump Administration and then met with and prayed over President Trump in the Oval Office. In April, CBL joined with pastors in Colorado to rally Christians to oppose a radical piece of legislation that would have criminalized Christian parents who refused to indulge transgender delusions in their children. CBL’s publications and podcasts helped draw national attention to the fight, and CBL spoke at the rally at the Colorado State Capitol.
For the second year in a row, CBL hosted an event at the SBC annual meeting, featuring over 800 pastors and a keynote speech from Steve Deace. CBL also features regular articles and podcasts which have been featured on major outlets like Nick Freitas’s podcast. CBL Executive Director, William Wolfe, spoke at multiple conferences this year including the Young Republicans of Texas Convention, the Carolina Men’s Forum, and the County Over Country Conference.
Center for Academic Faithfulness and Flourishing (CAFF)
Jesse Rine, Director of CAFF, gave a plenary address at the CCCU Presidents Conference in January and recently was a guest on Biblical Higher Ed Talk with Philip Dearborn who is president of the Association for Biblical Higher Education. CAFF’s Christian College Market Profile Research Report was covered in The Chronicle of Higher Education, and a CAFF whitepaper on “Restoring Liberal Arts in the Core Curriculum” was featured by RealClearEducation. The CAFF College Guide, the second edition of which was released in October, received an Innovation Prize from the Heritage Foundation.
Media Appearances
Senior fellow and co-founder, Aaron Renn, was both profiled by the New York Times and had an op-ed published there. Aaron and our Director of Education, Colin Redemer, were both published in First Things this year. Aaron had a number of media and conference appearances this year talking about his bestseller, Life in Negative World, as well as his new essay on Evangelical elites, which is sure to generate continued discussion both at American Reformer and elsewhere. Pertaining to the latter, Aaron was recently on Kevin DeYoung’s Life, Books, & Everything podcast.
William Wolfe had a slew of major media appearances this year including the shows of Jesse Kelly, Todd Starns, Tim Pool, and Steve Deace. Wolfe, Nate Fischer, myself, and Cotton Mather Fellow, Chase Davis all spoke at the 2025 National Conservatism Conference. You can find the speeches here. American Reformer co-sponsored the Life After Secularism conference held in Battle Ground, Washington where I spoke on a panel alongside Nate Fischer and plenary talks from Aaron Renn, Andrew Walker, and C.R. Wiley.
American Reformer also sponsored the ISI American Politics and Government Summit for the second year in a row, where I chaired a panel on Christian statesmanship that featured Cotton Mather Fellow, Soren Moody, contributing editor Ben Crenshaw, and Stephen Wolfe. Colin Redemer spoke on another panel alongside Rusty Reno and Nathan Pinkoski at the same conference.
Josh Abbotoy was published in the Federalist, I was published in the American Mind and Christ Over All, and my essay on why we need to reform Establishment Clause jurisprudence, co-authored with Yoram Hazony and Josh Hammer, came out at the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. I also had an essay published in the collection, Reformation and Society, from Westminster Seminary Press. Apart from his regular weekly column at American Reformer, contributing editor, Ben Crenshaw, had a book review published at the Civitas Institute of the University of Texas.
Conclusion
For another year, our work at American Reformer has been blessed by Providence. We could not do it without the generous support of our readers. Thank you! If you are able, please consider a monthly donation in 2026 so we may continue to expand our efforts.
I will close with an exhortation from Ezra Stiles (1727-1795) as a reminder of the great national inheritance we have received and hope to maintain.
But I must desist, with only observing that the United States are under peculiar obligations to become a holy people unto the Lord our God, on account of the late eminent deliverance, salvation, peace and glory, with which he hath now crowned our new sovereignty. Deut. 4:34.
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