> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://mereorthodoxy.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Best of Mere Orthodoxy: 2025 - URL: https://mereorthodoxy.com/best-of-mere-orthodoxy-2025/ - Published: 2025-12-29T12:00:01.000Z - Updated: 2026-05-18T14:36:01.000Z - Description: A recap of the past year's work at Mere Orthodoxy - Author: Mere Orthodoxy - Tags: Jake Meador, Best of Mere Orthodoxy As we wrap up every year, we have long had a habit of reviewing the past year's work here at *Mere O* and sharing some of our favorite pieces in an end-of-year recap. This collection is not necessarily indicative of traffic, but simply is our own attempt to highlight some of the year's best work. It has been a full year for us. We have grown our team to three full-time employees, our email list, which was at 800 in the spring of 2024, has exploded to over 22,000 as we close out the year. Our paid membership has likewise nearly tripled from where it was in early 2024 to where it is now. Additionally, we are now posting ten original essays and reviews per week rather than five, which means we have doubled the amount of work we are already giving away for free on our website every day. If you've been encouraged, helped, or otherwise blessed by the work, the simplest way for you to help us continue doing it is to [become a *Mere Orthodoxy* member today.](https://mereorthodoxy.com/membership) Often in these posts I will also consider some broader media trends in the past year and how those have influenced our work. What I shared above largely covers that, however: Social media is dying or perhaps dead as a traffic generation tool for online media. Relatedly, "selling ads based on high traffic" is also dead and has been for some time. These days Facebook, Twitter, and other similar platforms want to treat their platforms more as walled gardens then as a portal to the open web. When I first took over *Mere O* in 2015, our leading traffic source was direct traffic, with Facebook and organic search next in line. Twitter was also significant. By the late 2010s and early 2020s, Facebook traffic had dropped off substantially, but Twitter was still a good traffic source. In 2025, however, 75% of our traffic is coming from direct site visitors, email, and website referrals. Search and social combine for only 25% of our traffic. This implies a broader change in how online media works today. In the past, the goal was traffic, social media made it relatively easy to get large amounts of traffic, and then publishers tried to monetize their site via their traffic, usually via partnerships with advertisers of one kind or another. Though it is sometimes remembered as a golden age of blogging, this wasn't a great model, actually. It incentivized poor behavior on the part of media producers, it caused media producers to build their publications on top of audiences they did not own or have direct access to but only could access through a mediator, such as Facebook or Twitter, and due to the low payments offered by advertisers it forced media companies to chase unsustainably large audiences just to pay their bills. The model we have now is generally better, but also a bit harder to break into. The default funding model these days is a blending of **reader support** in the form of memberships and **sponsorship ads for podcasts and email**, which both work far better as advertising platforms than websites, and **donations**. The reason this model is harder to break into is because it is much harder now to build an audience as an individual writer or producer. That said, the media organizations that succeed with this model will be *far* better positioned for long-term success than the signature digital media outlets of the social media age, such as Buzzfeed, the Huffington Post, Vice, and so on, virtually all of whom exist today, if at all, only in a zombiefied form. The current business model for supporting online media encourages publishers to know their audience, makes it far easier for them own their audience and access them directly, and can theoretically allow for the flourishing of small magazines of the sort that once thrived in America and might do so again. On that note, here are some of our favorite pieces from our own small magazine's work this year. ## Politics and Culture [Why You Shouldn't Burn it All Down by Myles Werntz](https://mereorthodoxy.com/why-you-shouldnt-burn-it-all-down) [How to Think About Using Government Funds for Christian Charity by Matthew Loftus](https://mereorthodoxy.com/how-to-think-about-using-government-funds-for-christian-charity) [What Were the Real Origins of the Christian Right? by Daniel Williams](https://mereorthodoxy.com/real-origins-christian-right) [Iron Sky: Peter Thiel and the Rise of Gay Space Fascism by Jonathan Cioran](https://mereorthodoxy.com/gay-space-fascism) [Common Arts That Matter by Thomas Fickley and Fr. Mark Perkins](https://mereorthodoxy.com/common-arts-that-matter) [The American: A Frank Capra Retrospective by Ryan Shinkel](https://mereorthodoxy.com/frank-capra) ## Books [Surviving the Magic Universe by Maguire Boles](https://mereorthodoxy.com/surviving-the-magic-universe) [Dostoevsky and Euthanasia by Vika Pechersky](https://mereorthodoxy.com/dostoevsky-and-euthanasia) [We're All George Smiley Now by Ana Siljak](https://mereorthodoxy.com/were-all-george-smiley-now) [A Future Worthy of Life: Houellebecq, Decadence, and Sacraments by Brad East](https://mereorthodoxy.com/houellebecq-submission-ten-years-later) [Augustine, Slavery, and Damaged Goods by Myles Werntz](https://mereorthodoxy.com/augustine-slavery-and-damaged-goods) [A Sham Trial: Reviewing 'The Sin of Empathy' by Dani Treweek](https://mereorthodoxy.com/sin-of-empathy-joe-rigney-book-review) [*Lamb of the Free*: A Critical Review by Derek Rishmawy](https://mereorthodoxy.com/a-review-of-andrew-remington-rilleras-lamb-of-the-free) ## Church and Theology [The Rise of the Right-Wing Exvangelical by Jake Meador](https://mereorthodoxy.com/two-types-of-exvangelicals) [A Place Where I Found Courage and Peace by Anna Catherine McGraw](https://mereorthodoxy.com/wheaton-college-controversy) [Lessons from Post-Soviet Russia for American Christians by Vika Pechersky](https://mereorthodoxy.com/lessons-from-post-soviet-russia-for-american-christians) [The Not At All Secret History of Nicaea by Susannah Black Roberts](https://mereorthodoxy.com/the-not-at-all-secret-history-of-nicaea) [How to Read the Bible with the Historic Church by Michael Niebauer](https://mereorthodoxy.com/how-to-read-the-bible-with-the-historic-church) [The Rule of St Augustine: Wisdom for Our Moment by Joey Sherrard](https://mereorthodoxy.com/rule-st-augustine) [How John MacArthur Changed American Preaching by Daniel Williams](https://mereorthodoxy.com/john-macarthur-legacy) [Learning from a Humble Theologian by Joshua Heavin](https://mereorthodoxy.com/learning-from-a-humble-theologian) [Doug Wilson Is Not a Prophet by Jeremy Sexton](https://mereorthodoxy.com/doug-wilson-is-not-a-prophet) [Faithful Obedience Without Pragmatism: The Music of John Van Deusen by Paul Frank Spencer](https://mereorthodoxy.com/faithful-obedience-without-pragmatism-the-music-of-john-van-deusen) [The Plight of the Christian Scholar by John Ahern](https://mereorthodoxy.com/the-plight-of-the-christian-scholar) [The Deconstruction of Evangelical Missions by Ted Esler](https://mereorthodoxy.com/the-deconstruction-of-evangelical-missions) ## Sex and Family [To Hate the Vulnerable: *Roe* at 52 by Nadya Williams](https://mereorthodoxy.com/to-hate-the-vulnerable-roe-at-52) [Did David Rape Bathsheba?: A Close Reading of the Relevant Texts by Alastair Roberts](https://mereorthodoxy.com/david-bathsheba) [The Babies Money Can Buy by Nadya Williams](https://mereorthodoxy.com/the-babies-money-can-buy) [Children of Men by James Locklear](https://mereorthodoxy.com/children-of-men) [Forsaking All Others by Kirsten Sanders](https://mereorthodoxy.com/forsaking-all-others) [The Case Against In Vitro Fertilization by Stiven Peter](https://mereorthodoxy.com/the-case-against-in-vitro-fertilization) [The Case Against Vasectomies by Haley Baumeister](https://mereorthodoxy.com/the-case-against-vasectomies) [Misunderstanding Porn by Matthew Loftus](https://mereorthodoxy.com/misunderstanding-porn)