Your Top 5 of 2021

We crunched the numbers and here they are...

Santa greeting children at a hospital in Rome, Italy. Image credit: Yara Nadri/Reuters

The Top 5 articles of 2021, as told by you, dear reader

Instead of Michael and I choosing our Top 5 for the year, we decided to look to you. Here are the most read Top 5 articles of 2021. For the Whigs among you, don’t worry, we’re not thoroughgoing populists just yet, we've also selected our favorite Top 5 article of 2021 that didn’t make it into the most-read list.

1. “Growing My Faith in the Face of Death” (The Atlantic)

   Because Tim continues to fight pancreatic cancer and this is a beautiful reflection on that fight.

2. “Losing Our Religion”

   Because this essay from Russell Moore looked at May 2021’s new declining Gallup poll numbers on church attendance in the US and one of the culprits: evangelicalism.

3. “What Became of Atheism, Part One: Wearing the Uniform” (Substack - Freddie deBoer)

   Because deBoer observes much about religion and public life that we explore in-depth here at the newsletter, but from different angle. Don’t miss this one.

4. “How America Fractured Into Four Parts” (The Atlantic)

   Because in an excerpt from George Packer’s new book, he’s splits the US into four distinct “Americas” — Free America, Smart America, Real America, and Just America. Think of these four parts as distinct narratives or “national myths” that are causing much of the division on the idea of the US.

5. “They believe ambitious women. They also see the costs.” (NYT)

   Because this article is absolutely fascinating. The NYT went back to young women they interviewed in 2016 and asked if their opinions on women in leadership have changed and how.

Michael and Melissa’s Top 5 for 2021:

For me (Melissa), it’s Liz Bruenig’s “Then the Birds Began to Die.” (The Atlantic) We know we share Liz’s writing often, but this particular essay is some seriously beautiful prose and really nails the emotional toll of this pandemic.

For me (Michael), it’s “The Empty Religions of Instagram” by Leigh Stein. (The New York Times) It included this incredible graf: “I have hardly prayed to God since I was a teenager, but the pandemic has cracked open inside me a profound yearning for reverence, humility and awe. I have an overdraft on my outrage account. I want moral authority from someone who isn’t shilling a memoir or calling out her enemies on social media for clout.”

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