(For now, anyway.)
When evangelicals stop preaching sermons on Gran Torino and dropping iPods from helicopters on Easter, I’ll start caring about Fatima.
I mean, do I have a Spiritual aversion to the “ceremonies, vows, works, and merits” of my brothers and sisters across the Tiber? Yes, and it is strong, theological and visceral.
But we are Keystone Kops over here. We are the Million Stooges, the overflowing clown car.
I think one reason the Reformation was so brilliant, so powerful, so swift in its spread, and still such an anchor—honestly: Luther and Calvin and Zwingli, et.al., but especially Luther, make me feel sane—for many of us today is because as it was taking shape and rescuing hearts, there was no Protestant Church yet to discredit it.
I never even noticed the ad for the Pope’s book at the top of the page until someone pointed it out to me. But for the last two weeks I have been honestly chagrined to keep seeing the word Evangel with a post beneath it that had nothing explicitly (and usually not implicitly) to do with the gospel.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
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If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
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