From news editor Daniel Silliman: One of our most-read stories last week was a piece I wrote in 2020. In the business, this is called “a long tail.” It’s always a bit surprising.

Back in October 2020—if you can cast your mind to the days of yore—Harry Styles was singing “Watermelon Sugar,” there were wildfires in California, the mayor of New York City was talking about banning holiday travel to stop the spread of COVID-19, and President Donald Trump announced that he was now nondenominational. I wrote about that last one. 

The president had previously identified as part of the mainline Presbyterian Church (USA), though he was not a regular attender. The announcement, made in an email interview with Religion News Service mediated by one of Trump’s faith advisors, wasn’t necessarily big news. Religious identifications can be a bit squishy, and if you don’t belong to a specific congregation, it’s not always clear what it means to say, “I am _____________” (fill in the religious affiliation). 

But I thought Trump’s announcement was interesting. It made the president part of the larger trend toward nondenominationalism in America. But also, it is unusual for a president to do something like that. Most occupants of the White House don’t even change hairstyles in office, much less churches.

People reading this story now are probably not wondering about a four-year old announcement. There’s another election (as you probably noticed) and they’re googling questions like “Is Trump Christian?”—which isn’t exactly what I wrote about, but the piece does get into Trump’s faith, and now the story has a long tail.