The Hits Just Keep On Coming

” Life Is Short. Have an Affair. ” So says an ad campaign publicizing an online adultery-facilitation service. If you’re looking for a pithy expression of the hedonistic nihilism threatening to dominate our post-Christian age, it’s hard to improve on that tagline.

Then there’s this:

Biderman said he doesn’t think a radio or TV spot is going to convince anybody to have an affair.

“These are decisions people have already come to in their life,” he said, “and we’re just providing them with access to other people who feel the same way.”

A puzzling defense. If adultery is neutral or good, who cares whether you convince more people to do it than otherwise would ? But if it’s bad, why aren’t you culpable for facilitating it? The only clear notion that emerges from this is that people should be able to do what they want.

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.

Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.

GIVE NOW

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.

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

The Church in the Age of Therapy

Matthew Loftus

In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…

Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot

Anna Farrow

On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…

The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen

Mike Aquilina

Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…