2025 in Review

At the start of this year — on Jan. 3 — I broke the story about Speaker Mike Johnson falsely claiming from the podium of the U.S. House of Representatives to have a prayer that Thomas Jefferson “recited every day during his presidency and each day afterward until he died.” That would’ve been quite a feat for Jefferson since the prayer that Johnson then read wasn’t written until decades after Jefferson’s death. A few days later, I unpacked the previously untold story of this prayer and how it was erroneously tied to Jefferson.

Earlier this month, I broke the story about who has preached so far at each of the monthly Christian prayer services at the Pentagon this year. Then I broke the story about what was said at the first monthly prayer service at the Department of Labor. While MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) and CNN later reported on the Labor service, they did so based only on what others said about it (including me). The only report based on actually watching the service didn’t come from national TV networks but from this newsletter.

Those bookends to this wild year nicely highlight the important journalism provided by A Public Witness. We deliver news and analysis you won’t find elsewhere, even shaping what is later reported by large, national media organizations.

In between the fake prayer stories and the reports on government prayer services, we also covered a lot of other important things in this significant year of faith and politics.

We reported on faith-based opposition to the Trump administration, including remarks by an Episcopal bishop, ELCA Lutheran leaders, Black Baptists, a Canadian Disciples leader, Christian leaders in Jerusalem, and Christians in South Africa. One of the most significant stories of the year involved clergy and denominations standing up to the Trump administration’s efforts to target immigrants. We reported on this from various angles, including multiple lawsuits from denominations, clergy holding prayer vigils outside ICE offices, and clergy being violently attacked while peacefully protesting.

We challenged the legislative push for spiritual “chaplains” and a highly edited version of the Ten Commandments in public schools. As with the Jefferson prayer stories, we also countered other Christian Nationalist historical myths, including about a failed Bible from the Revolutionary era and a made-up story about George Washington and prayer. Additionally, we unpacked the misuse of religion by various politicians, including Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams, lawmakers in Oklahoma, a Republican Supreme Court candidate in Wisconsin, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense/War, and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

We published on-the-ground reports from largely overlooked but important denominational meetings, including those of American Baptist Churches USA, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and United Church of Christ. We also reported from a Turning Point USA Pastors Summit, a Notre Dame conference on Christian Nationalism, the Summit for Religious Freedom, and the Religious Freedom in Public Schools Summit.

And we’ve covered a plethora of other topics to add understanding to what’s happening in our world — like a look at the roles churches played in building and giving away the Panama Canal, an exploration of religious messages in Trump souvenir stores, an analysis at how often presidents talk about Jesus, a look at the dangers of progressive election denialism, reports on a prison pastor in Missouri who was executed while state officials denied his request for a spiritual advisor, and more.

We’re a small outlet, but we’re having an impact and covering stories that would otherwise not receive the attention they need. This year again proved that. It’s also been a great year as we’ve been honored with awards for our reporting at A Public Witness and watched as our subscriber count grew. So in this review of 2025, I will count down our most popular pieces and reflect on some other highlights.

Top Pieces in 2025

This year we published 126 pieces at A Public Witness, in addition to also sending out a weekly roundup email of top news and more. Close to one-third of those 126 pieces went only to paid subscribers. Here are the 15 most-read pieces from A Public Witness in 2025:

15. Notre Dame Conference Addresses ‘Pressing Crisis’ of Christian Nationalism by Brian Kaylor (March 25)

14. How to Challenge MAGA’s Biblical Authoritarianism by Drew Strait (July 2)

13. Bombing God’s Love by Brian Kaylor (June 22)

12. Johnson Wins Speakership, Reads Fake Prayer from Thomas Jefferson by Brian Kaylor (Jan. 3)

11. At Pentagon Christmas Service, Franklin Graham Praises ‘God of War’ by Brian Kaylor (Dec. 17)

10. Inside Turning Point USA’s Pastors Summit by Matthew Boedy (March 24)

9. Not Worth It by Brian Kaylor (Sept. 11)

8. Black Baptist Church Cuts Ties With Kennedy Center After Trump Takeover by Brian Kaylor (Feb. 19)

7. After Viral Sermon, GOP Threatens Religious Liberty by Brian Kaylor (Jan. 25)

6. Sermons About That Sermon by Brian Kaylor (Jan. 27)

5. Brave Sermon Exposes Christian Nationalism by Brian Kaylor (Jan. 22)

4. Lutherans Hammer Misinformation by Michael Flynn & Elon Musk by Brian Kaylor (Feb. 3)

3. When a Politician’s Party Trumps Their Church by Brian Kaylor (Feb. 11)

2. Chris Tomlin’s Worshipwashing of Charlie Kirk by Brian Kaylor (Sept. 22)

… drumroll …

1. John Danforth, Former GOP Senator & Episcopal Priest, Calls Bishop Budde ‘Prophetic’ by Brian Kaylor (Jan. 30)

Highlights of 2025

In addition to top pieces from A Public Witness this year, I’d also like to quickly highlight six more things at Word&Way this year.

6. We expanded our award-winning show Dangerous Dogma. We’ve been podcasting since 2018, but this year we also released a video version for most episodes of our show Dangerous Dogma. You can still find the show wherever you listen to podcasts (or on its main podcast page), but there is now also a YouTube playlist of episodes. If you want to check out some of our conversations, consider starting with the top 10 most-popular episodes of Dangerous Dogma this year.

5. Our work was cited by numerous other media outlets. Among those who looked to us to inform their coverage of various issues were the Associated Press, Baptist News Global, Houston Chronicle, Kansas City Star, MSNBC/MS NOW, Religion News Service, and Sojourners.

4. We were honored with 14 awards for our journalism. This included 10 awards for A Public Witness from our peers in religious journalism. We also won awards for our Unsettling Advent devotionals, news writing, editorial writing, and more. We’ve won more than 100 awards over the past five years, proof of our commitment to providing you with quality Christian journalism.

3. Baptizing America was named the top book — twice. In addition to our journalism awards, Baptizing America won two top awards. The Associated Church Press honored the book with its award for the top book of the year and the Religion Communicators Council gave the book its top nonfiction book of the year award.

2. The Bible According to Christian Nationalists was released. This year has brought a lot of challenges in government and society, which we’ve covered at A Public Witness. But there’s also a broader problem that needed to be addressed: Christian Nationalists have co-opted the Bible, weaponizing it for political power. So I wrote The Bible According to Christian Nationalists to help Christians push back against the misuse of our sacred texts and to highlight better ways of reading Scripture.

1. Subscribers to A Public Witness reached new highs. This year, our overall number of subscribers has grown by more than 19%. We’re glad you found us! We’re especially thankful for the smaller group of paid subscribers, our core community that grew about 5% this year. This growth is essential to ensuring the future sustainability of our journalism ministry. But we honestly need more paid subscribers to do the work we need to in 2026. So if you’re not yet a paid subscriber to this newsletter, you can help us continue our important work by upgrading today. You can also support us by giving a tax-deductible gift.

None of this would be possible without the faithful support of our readers and donors. Thanks for being part of our journey in 2025. And I’m excited to see what we can do together in the coming year.

As a public witness,

Brian Kaylor