♦ St. Augustine on our final end: “We shall rest and see, see and love, love and praise.”
♦ Mike Woodruff’s always useful “Friday Update” directed me to Ryan Burge’s report on our polarized news media. Burge: “62% of white evangelicals watched Fox News in the past 24 hours. Just 16% of atheists have watched Fox. Meanwhile, 48% of atheists have watched MSNBC. Just 13% of white evangelicals have watched MSNBC.” Other interesting results: Muslims prefer CNN, followed by Fox. Agnostics are all over the map when it comes to news networks, which is perhaps unsurprising given the “not sure” quality of that sort-of belief. The closely related “nothing in particular” group is ecumenical when it comes to news outlets as well. Mainline Protestants are also widely spread across the channels, although likely to favor Fox over MSNBC.
Burge also reports on the grim condition of today’s high-school-age kids. Drawing on a study of ten behaviors, he notes that 34 percent of high school seniors reported going on zero or one date per month in 1995. The cohort of non-dating eighteen-year-olds rose slowly to nearly 50 percent in 2010. Then it took off, reaching 72 percent in 2021. Sure, COVID had an effect in 2021, but the effect was minimal. The non-dating cohort was nearly 70 percent before the pandemic.
As I’ve written many times in the past, the evidence is overwhelming: The male-female dance has broken down for Gen Z. And I’ll repeat: The toxic world in which the Zoomers have grown up was not shaped by bourgeois, middle-class norms. It has not been influenced by evangelical pastors or Catholic bishops. Rather, their world has been engineered by proponents of Pride Month and Drag Queen Story Hours. It has been shaped by adults who tolerate unrestricted internet pornography, who have embraced gay marriage and legalized marijuana. They have signed off on DEI assaults on anything resembling a normal attitude toward boys and girls. Fueling the very worst aspects of this toxic world have been smartphones, social media sites, and apps designed by billionaires to addict young people.
♦ Speaking of smartphones and addiction, in early June First Things was honored to host Clare Morell at the office to talk about her new book, Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones. Clare has written an excellent and essential book, a must-read for parents with children of any age (and grandparents, too). She documents the devastating effects of smartphones on young brains. Her message is hard but must be heard: Limiting screentime won’t work, or at least won’t work well enough. Would a mother accept that a “little bit” of lead in the water is okay for her kids? I don’t think so. The same holds for screens.
♦ One of our Junior Fellows was so strongly affected by Clare’s presentation that he bought a “dumb” phone that very evening so that he can leave his smartphone at home and spend the workday free from the lure of its screen.
♦ The same Junior Fellow was also influenced by Matthew Gasda’s confessions of smartphone addiction in the summer edition of the Brooklyn underground publication cracks in pomo: the zine. Gasda:
I’m aware that my flip phone is holding the line for me. That if I bought a new iPhone, I would spiral into levels of depravity and stupidity, hitherto unknown, in that over time, I would lose even the ability to be aware of this, and that is really the danger of the smartphone. You stop being aware of what you could have been. You lose the mythic hope of being a fully-fledged human being, and you start to crave submission to the digital Oversoul.
♦ As I’ve noted before, young people are on the cutting edge of a rebellion against late modern progressivism. Consider transgender ideology. A 2025 Pew study reports that 65 percent of adults affirm that a person’s gender is determined by sex at birth. Teens are even more hostile to transgender ideology. Sixty-nine percent of those aged thirteen to seventeen make the same affirmation.
♦ In late June, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in all public elementary and secondary schools. The mandate is certain to be challenged in court, as has Louisiana’s legislation, to the same effect. Here is my advice to judges: By all means, consider the details of constitutional law in this matter. But your job also requires assessing the realities of American society in 2025. Are young people vulnerable to subtle religious proselytization? Or are they more likely to be educated into a materialist worldview that denies the existence of any objective moral truth and deprives them of even the slightest hint of transcendence? The latter is self-evidently the case. For that reason, legislation mandating display of the Ten Commandments serves an important corrective purpose, purely secular in nature, that falls well within the state’s police power to enact laws and regulations that protect the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of its citizens. It does not require a “religious” motive to seek to ensure that children are aware that there is an objective moral code.
♦ Is the Netherlands a Protestant nation? Historically, it has been a bastion of Calvinism. No longer. In 2024, the largest “religious” group is made up of those who do not identify with any religion, amounting to 56 percent of the population. Of those who subscribe to a religious faith, 17 percent of the Dutch population identify as Roman Catholic, while 14 percent of the population describe themselves as affiliated with one of the Protestant churches in the Netherlands.
♦ Edward Baugh would like to form a ROFTers group in Alpena, Michigan. If you live on the upper shores of Lake Huron and would like to join, you can reach him at etdbaugh@yahoo.com. Kyle and Diane Smith would like to form a ROFTers group in Sacramento, California. To join, get in touch at sacramentorofters@gmail.com.
♦ Attention, First Things readers in Little Rock, Arkansas: I will be delivering a lecture at The William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum on Thursday, September 18: “Jesus in the Public Square.” I look forward to seeing you there.
♦ On Monday, September 22, Matthew Crawford will deliver the 2025 Austin Lecture, co-sponsored by the Center for Christian Studies. His topic: “Can Christianity Be Noble?” The lecture begins at 7 p.m. and takes place at University Avenue Church of Christ, adjacent to the University of Texas.
♦ The annual Erasmus Lecture will take place on Monday, November 3 at the Union League Club of New York. This year’s lecture will be delivered by Bishop Erik Varden: “In Praise of Translation.” It’s never too early to make plans to attend!
♦ Over the years, we’ve been blessed with many talented and faithful summer interns. This year has been no exception. I’d like to thank Christopher Cope, a rising junior at Notre Dame; Cecilia Jones, a rising senior at Benedictine College; and Izzi Hogben, who will begin her freshman year at Harvard this fall. They have been hardworking, yes, but I especially cherish the warmth and dedication they have brought to our common task.
♦ I want to extend my heartfelt appreciation for the contributions Ellie Hancock has made to the First Things mission. She served for two years as Program Associate, which involves handling a large number of tasks, all essential for the smooth functioning of our operations. Ellie recently gave birth to Samuel Lewis Hancock, and she is moving with her husband David to California, where he will begin graduate study at Biola University. We’ll miss her cheerful presence, and we wish her, David, and Samuel all the best in the Golden State.
♦ Ellie’s departure means that we’re delighted to welcome Eli Hixon to our team. He has assumed the role of Program Director. I’m confident he’ll steer the ship with the same steady competence.
♦ As I write, we are wrapping up our spring fundraising campaign. I’d like to thank those who made a contribution. First Things is blessed with a devoted—and generous—readership.
