Sinner’s Prayer

Seeing as Advent is a penitential season, and seeing as I’ve been talking about Advent music, here’s a penitential song. Well, sort of. It’s not exactly sacred, at least in traditional terms, but it is callled “Sinner’s Prayer.” And it’s covered by B.B. King, Guy Preston, and Bruce Willis (who knew he played blues harmonica?). If Allegri had grown up in Mississippi, the “Miserere” might have sounded something like this.

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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