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# 2022 Eliot Awards - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture
- URL: https://mereorthodoxy.com/2022-eliot-awards/
- Published: 2022-12-27T06:00:33.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-18T15:14:27.000Z
- Description: I’m going to handle the Eliot Awards a little differently this year. I still am going to link to my favorite magazine writing of the year, but for a few reasons this year’s edition will not be as tightly organized […]
- Author: Mere Orthodoxy
- Tags: Jake Meador, Featured, Blogging

I’m going to handle the Eliot Awards a little differently this year. I still am going to link to my favorite magazine writing of the year, but for a few reasons this year’s edition will not be as tightly organized as in past years.

Partly that’s due to time. Partly it’s due to the way media is shifting. Speaking only for myself, I find that most of the writing that really blows my hair back and makes me see something in a fundamentally new way is from someone’s Substack or a relatively small magazine while the pieces that present in a better way something I knew to some degree or thought already tend to show up in the establishment outlets. The result is the most creative work happens along the margins while the more cautious, safer articulations of good work comes from the mainstream.

To some degree, that’s probably how it’s always been—small places or self-published places will take more risks, after all. But I also think the relative ease of publishing probably means that the wild stuff is more likely than ever to be on Substack or a small mag while the established places get more set in their ways and locked into a particular brand. In any case, I wanted to include something in this year’s edition to highlight some broader “year-in-reading” type issues, so I spent a bit less time on organizing and formatting the links.

Also, just a word on format and scope here: The Eliot Awards are intended to honor in-depth reporting and essay writing. So the intent here is not to promote columns or book reviews or short-form work, but rather to highlight excellent essays, long-form writing, and in-depth reporting in the past year.

Anyway, on to the awards:

## Eliot Award Winners

These are my choices for the five most important things I read online this year. The Tjarks piece was the best thing I read all year, and the most sobering. The Askonas, Anderson, Helena, and Sacasas essays all are essential pieces for understanding our moment, I think, because they all in different ways hit the primary crisis of the moment, which is “how can we live as creatures in a technopoly?”

[Does My Son Know You?](https://www.theringer.com/2022/3/3/22956353/fatherhood-cancer-jonathan-tjarks?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) by Jonathan Tjarks published in *The Ringer*

[Reality is Just a Game Now](https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/reality-is-just-a-game-now?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) by Jon Askonas published in *The New Atlantis*

[Is There a Right to Have Children](https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/parenting/is-there-a-right-to-have-children?utm%5Fsource=pocket%5Freader) by Matthew Lee Anderson in *Plough* (Disclosure: Anderson is a friend and the founder of *Mere Orthodoxy* and I am a contributing editor with *Plough*.)

[By Any Other Name](https://lacroicsz.substack.com/p/by-any-other-name?r=18ll6h&s=r&utm%5Fsource=pocket%5Freader) by Helena published on Substack

[The Meta-Positioning Habit of Mind](https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-meta-positioning-habit-of-mind#details) by L. M. Sacasas

## Honorable Mentions

These are my other favorite pieces from the past year.

[Failure to Cope ‘Under Capitalism’](https://www.gawker.com/culture/failure-to-cope-under-capitalism?utm%5Fsource=pocket%5Freader) by Clare Coffey in *Gawker*

[In the Shoes of the Woman Considering Abortion](https://www.plough.com/en/topics/justice/culture-of-life/in-the-shoes-of-the-woman-considering-abortion?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) by Kirsten Sanders in *Plough*

[What Was the TED Talk?](https://www.thedriftmag.com/what-was-the-ted-talk?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) by Oscar Schwartz published in *The Drift*

[Dead Man Living](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/alabama-inmate-execution-alan-miller/671620/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) by Elizabeth Bruenig in *The Atlantic*

[Post-Liberal Gods and Monsters](https://adfontesjournal.com/archives/postliberal-gods-and-monsters/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) by John Ehrett in *Ad Fontes*

[Why Conservatism Failed](https://compactmag.com/article/why-conservatism-failed?utm%5Fsource=pocket%5Freader) by Jon Askonas published in *Compact*

[Rich Mullins: Ragamuffin, Celebrity, Disciple](https://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/rich-mullins-ragamuffin-celebrity-disciple?utm%5Fsource=pocket%5Freader) by Bethel McGrew published in *Plough*

[How a Hospital Chain Used a Poor Neighborhood to Turn Huge Profits](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/24/health/bon-secours-mercy-health-profit-poor-neighborhood.html?smid=tw-share&unlocked%5Farticle%5Fcode=v%5FxgzTcvL5idEu9-x1s5kfhdvq2-p7QzPDv8vhh8tHcCkvXxh%5F8bbtbgEZucd5AoxQdVUqugJELAWL8EqKDC%5FgCqAwkFfAx5bYB87thv1f2CemcmnS7esBFLnDqtKZ7jJGAFcI-tfC0PWVYe9aAzi5OOuKnoAfM7VZZYb7DtSvEd3CL2hgtB0vN3WgqNoQQaZun4sLfJMnWxbczudiGcQadHcMvuyrfxsS4MKrReMOb4rlK9SOWGZ%5FD0u7ItNfHft31JgkW4suD7KQS-MjeR6CD9ka45v01dPlHGpWjDk83w3NZ7m3Rq8RB8BuhzWn3VSAhGpg24QofCGhmXbpKBThGBIhwrMz-joaflbPNwY7Z%5FS6ZIblxSZgKe&utm%5Fsource=pocket%5Freader) by Katie Thomas and Jessica Silver-Greenberg in *The New York Times*

[The Case for Kids](https://www.firstthings.com/article/2022/11/the-case-for-kids?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) by Kevin DeYoung published in *First Things*

[Why the Last Ten Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) by Jonathan Haidt published in *The Atlantic*

[What Comes After the Religious Right?](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/01/opinion/republicans-religion-conservatism.html?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) by Nate Hochman in *The New York Times*

[The Making of Nikole Hannah-Jones](https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/making-of-nikole-hannah-jones-waterloo-iowa-1619-project-new-york-times?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) by Marc Weitzmann in *Tablet*

[The Impotence of World Cup Protests](https://compactmag.com/article/the-impotence-of-world-cup-protests?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) by Alfie Bown published in *Compact*

[This Texas teen wanted an abortion. She now has twins](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/20/texas-abortion-law-teen-mom/?utm%5Fsource=pocket%5Fsaves) by Caroline Kitchener published in *The Washington Post*

[This is Not Justice](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/11/campaign-to-free-incarcerated-philadelphia-teenager-sixth-amendment/671527/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) by Jake Tapper in *The Atlantic*

[Transformation of a Transgender Teen](https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/transformation-transgender-teen/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) by Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra published in *The Gospel Coalition*

[Keep the Home Fires Burning](https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/p/keep-the-home-fires-burning) by Paul Kingsnorth published on Substack

[The Dirty War Over Covid](https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2022/10/03/the-dirty-war-over-covid/?utm%5Fsource=pocket%5Fsaves) by Ari Schulman in *National Review*

[Code Snitching: Nashvillians Are Weaponizing Metro Codes Against ‘Undesirable’ Neighbors](https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/coverstory/code-snitching-nashvillians-are-weaponizing-metro-codes-against-undesirable-neighbors/article%5F5e94bd56-0c67-11ed-af4e-e3d04ad7e500.html?utm%5Fsource=pocket%5Freader) by Radley Balko published in Nashville Scene

[There is no ‘Mary Problem’ in *It’s a Wonderful Life*](https://www.thebulwark.com/there-is-no-mary-problem-in-its-a-wonderful-life/?fbclid=IwAR1MGDqYlGLwT0LEnPFg9K45P2ipsjYhqrXDP9TXMSYNsryVINKJshPS%5FII&utm%5Fsource=pocket%5Freader)by Clare Coffey in *The Bulwark*

[Designing Women](https://comment.org/designing-woman/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) by Leah Sargeant in *Comment*

[Brokenism](https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/brokenism-alana-newhouse?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) by Alana Newhouse in *Tablet*