This year's Kavanaugh hearings revealed just how far progressives will go to keep a religious conservative out of the public square. As a First Things contributor said in conversation the other day, the proceedings were a fair specimen of Leninism, a campaign of ends-justify-means that came very close to succeeding. Social and religious conservatives gaze at the world before them and see an army mobilized against them—from Silicon Valley to Hollywood, Madison to Boulder to Austin, the Southern Poverty Law Center to CNN to the House of Representatives. We have on our side the Gospels and our prayers, but the array of worldly antagonists can be dispiriting.
Three weeks ago I spoke at a Protestant church in Atlanta, a conservative congregation that spun off from the main line when the latter made peace with liberalism (i.e., capitulated to it). Since then, while the old church has lost members every year, this one has grown and thrived. I joined them for evening prayers, broke bread, then talked to the crowd about disillusionment and recovery, secular academia and the nourishment of prayer.
The audience was inspired—not by me, though. They were already primed; they were First Things readers. One after another told me he took strength from Rusty's Public Square, and from our essays that hold firm on tradition and dogma in spite of the pressure in 2018 America. I assumed they meant Mary Eberstadt on the sexual revolution, Pat Snow on the digital threat, Peter Hitchens on D. H. Lawrence, Joseph Epstein on the bookish life . . .
It was gratifying. I regard our editorial offices as a small command post of Christian soldiers giving their all. This is what I tell people when they approach me at events and praise the magazine: “We're doing it for you.” I love our readers. You pause amid your busy lives to download the podcasts or open the print magazine. We appreciate you more than we can say. We get paid to do what we do—you don't. Your dedication energizes us.
Many of you already contribute to the First Things project. But if you don't, please consider making a gift today. You can be confident that your donations go directly to the mission of bringing intelligent and moral discernment, informed by biblical teaching, to current events and necessities. I thank all of you for your generosity.
Mark Bauerlein is senior editor of First Things.
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