by Patrick Thomas

This past year marked a number of “firsts” for the RACM blog.  This past April we celebrated one full year of our site. In June we reached the highest number of readers yet, with over 1543 unique visitors over 30 days. And as we end 2017, this marks the 177th post (with regular postings twice per week) on the RACM blog. An impressive collection for our small operation!  

This year also marks the first full calendar year for rightingamerica.net & the RACM blog. As 2017 comes to a close, we’re taking a long view of our year’s worth of posts – a year that was significant for our blog not only in the number of posts but in the variety of authors’ voices and topics featured on the blog as well as readers reached and visitors to our site.  Today we review our top five most popular posts from the year.

5. Who is Twisting the Truth? (179 views) Published February 7, 2017.

Infuriated by Americans United’s critique, Answers in Genesis CEO Ken Ham attempts a defense of state-supported financing of Ark Encounter.

4. Terrorizing Immigrants and Catholics (185 views)  Published November 4, 2017.

Today, it isn’t clear whether the KKK has been on the winning or losing side of the argument about what it means to be an American.

3.The Materialist Assumptions of Creationism (202 views) Published January 6, 2017 and written by our colleague Frederick W. Schmidt.

The creationist supposes that if God is to be found anywhere, it is just beyond the place where our knowing and our senses fail us. That logic surrenders far too much.

2. Joel Osteen, Evangelicals, and Donald Trump (207 views) Published October 16, 2017 and written by our colleague Emily McGowin Hunter.

Because they voted for him and continue to defend him in droves, evangelicals are now associated with Trump’s excesses.

1. The Sinking of a Small Town (221 views) Published March 3, 2017.

What Ken Ham and AiG sold to community leaders who were desperate for an economic boost is not coming to pass. Ark Encounter may be doing great, but the local community is not.

Indeed, this has been a productive year for the RACM blog!  What is very interesting about this list is that these posts are quite varied both in topics and authors. We are thrilled about that! As we look back across the year, we acknowledge that we are less a site about a unifying topic or theme and much more a community of engaged scholars who seek to understand what is underway in the worlds of evangelicalism, fundamentalism, young Earth creationism, and beyond.

As we look ahead we know one thing for sure—there’s no predicting what this community will have to say. And we cannot wait to watch it unfold. We hope for more authors and features in 2018.  If you, our kind readers, would like to write a post or have topic suggestions or questions you’d like us to address, feel free to leave us a comment below.

Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year!