{"id":3813,"date":"2012-08-10T10:48:29","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T16:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=3813"},"modified":"2012-10-11T14:36:09","modified_gmt":"2012-10-11T20:36:09","slug":"from-law-to-grace-the-top-10-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=3813","title":{"rendered":"From Law to Grace: The Top 10 List"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I began From Law to Grace<\/em> on July 1, 2010, I had no idea where it would take me or my readers. I had an idea of what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it, but I quickly learned that blogging is both an art and a science. Following a short introductory post, “Welcome to From Law to Grace,”<\/em> <\/a>I published “Credible Witnesses,” <\/em><\/a>the first of three posts on the Ergun Caner\/Liberty University kerfuffle (also here<\/a> and here<\/a>). Now, 299 posts and over two years later, I continue to write about those colliding worlds (one of many Seinfeld<\/em> references along the way) and “the intersection of law, religion, and politics in culture and Baptist life.”<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>If it weren’t for church, family commitments, food poisoning<\/a>, \u00a0an\u00a0emergency appendectomy<\/a>, and a few self-imposed sabbaticals <\/a>along the way, I could have probably published even more posts. And, lost my mind in the process, but that’s a post for another day. As it is, I have enjoyed being able to share my thoughts and opinions with my From Law to Grace readers over the last two years. I have also enjoyed getting to dialogue with folks through the comments on various posts. Even the disagreements (and there were many) were civil. I cannot remember a single instance where I had to delete someone’s comment, although I did have to edit one or two to clean up some profanity. As a general rule, I enjoy the free and open dialogue that a blog can offer. I know that there are some blogs which have a more limited commenting policy, but I believe that blog readers can discern for themselves whether an argument is good or bad. They don’t need me to delete comments on the front-end that I may not like or that may strongly attack what I believe. If we cannot have open debate that remains civil, then I think we lose something that makes our country great.<\/p>\n

Before I list the Top 10 Viewed Posts, let me share with you where a few statistics about where From Law to Grace<\/em> readers live. It should not surprise you that the overwhelming majority of this blog’s readers hail from the United States (92%). The next biggest, at 1.5%, \u00a0readership comes from Canada. All other countries are less than 1% in terms of readers, although I do have some loyal and regular readers of the blog who live in Thailand and other faraway lands.<\/p>\n

In the United States, 60% of From Law to Grace<\/em> readers live in 10 states. In order, those are:<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0Texas (10.36%) \u00a0 2. \u00a0Georgia (10.34%) \u00a0 3. \u00a0Florida (8.43%) \u00a0 4. \u00a0North Carolina (6.58%) \u00a0 5. \u00a0Tennessee (5%) \u00a0 6. \u00a0California (4.73 %) \u00a0 7. \u00a0New Mexico (4.21%) \u00a0 8. \u00a0Missouri (3.86%) \u00a0 9. \u00a0Kentucky (3.83%) \u00a0 10. \u00a0Alabama (3.31%)<\/p>\n

If I break it down by metropolitan area, the top ten areas where readers live is:<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0Atlanta \u00a0 2. \u00a0Dallas\/Ft. Worth \u00a0 3. \u00a0Albuquerque\/Santa Fe \u00a0 4. \u00a0New York City \u00a0 5. \u00a0Ft. Myers\/Naples \u00a0 6. \u00a0Nashville \u00a0 7. \u00a0Charlotte \u00a0 8. \u00a0Birmingham \u00a0 9. \u00a0Houston \u00a0 10. \u00a0Los Angeles<\/p>\n

When I look at these statistics, some make sense while others don’t. For instance, my #1 From Law to Grace<\/em> reader — my mom — lives in the Ft. Myers\/Naples metropolitan area. A few of these areas just happen to coincide with the locations of Southern Baptist entities.\u00a0I’m still trying to figure out why NYC and LA ranked as high as they did, but I love the diversity of readership that these two non-southern cities bring. Atlanta ranks high, not just because many Southern Baptists reside there, but also because it is home to a church which was the subject of the highest two all-time viewed blog posts. So, without further ado, here are the Top 10 From Law to Grace<\/em> posts:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Andy Stanley’s Soft Landing on Homosexuality<\/em><\/a> (published April 26, 2012) — This post, by far, has been my most viewed. I continue to have people comment on this post and the other two Andy Stanley posts.<\/li>\n
  2. Andy Stanley, Homosexuality & the Horns of a Dilemma<\/a><\/em> (published May 3, 2012)<\/li>\n
  3. Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill & Spiritual Abuse<\/a><\/em> (published March 21, 2012) — This struck a never, with both the pro and anti Driscoll folks out there.<\/li>\n
  4. Female Pastors & Graceless Responses in Mayberry<\/em> <\/a>(published August 5, 2011) — Perhaps one of my favorite posts which combined by experience as a lawyer and as a pastor.<\/li>\n
  5. Andy Stanley’s Perplexing Silence Far From Golden<\/em><\/a> (published May 8, 2012)<\/li>\n
  6. Adam Baldwin: A Conservative Voice In Hollywood<\/em> <\/a>(published April 29, 2011) — This post incorporates a bit of nostalgia from my childhood. This might rank as one of my top three favorite posts that I have written.<\/li>\n
  7. Power Plays & Moves to Oppress Dissent in the SBC<\/em><\/a> (published March 28, 2012)<\/li>\n
  8. Tim Tebow: God Knows, Boomer Esiason Doesn’t!\u00a0<\/em><\/a>(published August 25, 2011) — Norman Julius Esaison (aka, “Boomer”) still doesn’t have a clue about Tebow<\/a> or life!<\/li>\n
  9. Mark Driscoll’s Mesmerizing Hold on LU & Evangelicalism<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(published April 12, 2012)<\/li>\n
  10. Mega Fridays: Mars Hill & Authoritarianism Run Amok<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>(published March 23, 2012)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    <\/div>\n
    So, there you have it — The Top 10 List. I appreciate so much those who take time out of their busy schedules to read From Law to Grace<\/em>. I look forward to continuing to write on those issues which interest me and, I hope, interest you. I also look forward to continuing the civil dialogue and debate along the way. Thanks for stopping by and God bless!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n

    \n<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    When I began From Law to Grace on July 1, 2010, I had no idea where it would take me or my readers. I had an idea of what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it, but I quickly learned that blogging is both an art and a science. Following a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,1191,35],"tags":[61,3405,2163,1934,3368,173,2164,3376,1100,3397,417,3385,606,1903,3404,1855,3391,3392,3394,985],"class_list":["post-3813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-featured","category-religion","tag-adam-baldwin","tag-andy-stanley","tag-blog-readers","tag-bloggers","tag-blogging","tag-boomer-esiason","tag-credible-witnesses","tag-ergun-caner","tag-female-pastors","tag-football","tag-from-law-to-grace","tag-hollywood","tag-liberty-university","tag-lu","tag-mark-driscoll","tag-mars-hill","tag-politics","tag-religion","tag-sports","tag-tim-tebow"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-Zv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3813"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3940,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3813\/revisions\/3940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}