While We’re At It

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about the moral inversions that took hold in 1930s Germany. The inversions were often theologically baptized as fitting reactions to the moralizing complacency of bourgeois Christianity. Here is a sharply worded passage from his Ethics: 

The justification of the good has been replaced by the justification of the wicked; the idealization of good citizenship has given way to the idealization of its opposite, of disorder, chaos, anarchy and catastrophe; the forgiving love of Jesus for the sinful woman, for the adulteress and publican, has been misrepresented for psychological or political reasons, in order to make of it a Christian sanctioning of anti-social ‘marginal existences,’ prostitutes and traitors to their country. In seeking to recover the power of the gospel this protest unintentionally transformed the gospel of the sinner into a commendation of sin.

Transgression liberates! Perversion opens new and more inclusive horizons! The mentality Bonhoeffer criticizes is very much with us today. 

• Speaking of reversals: Adam Smith-Connor is being prosecuted in Great Britain. His crime? Engaging in silent prayer for his aborted son near an abortion clinic. Apparently, this act is prohibited behavior within a four-block zone around the abortion clinic. Christian piety prohibited; a temple of child sacrifice protected. Would it be harmful to the witness of the Church if a dozen priests were arrested for doing as Smith-Connor has done? 

• Brad Littlejohn on the proper role of pessimism (from his regular musings, “Commonwealth ­Dispatches”): 

We must reject the pragmatic premise that self-deceit is better than honesty if it produces better immediate results. There comes a point in every life when a man must have the clear-eyed courage to look the end of all his strivings squarely in the face, rather than listening to doctors who promise him he’ll be back on his feet in no time. For the Christian, death is not the end, either for an ­individual or for a civilization. We can face our cultural decline with the world-renewing vision of a Benedict or a Boethius ­only if we are willing to look beyond the possible death of our own social world toward the new ones the Lord may have in store. 

• Oren Cass takes on the phenomenon of tiger-mom parenting. He notes that today’s parents are far more anxious to give their kids every advantage in life than they were in previous generations. But outcomes are perversely worse, not better.

Everyone agrees that parenting has gotten wildly more intensive in recent decades. The data do not provide evidence of improved outcomes. Kids are not more emotionally resilient—almost surely less so. Their mental health is worse. Their test scores are lower. Those who go to college arrive less able to handle living on their own or doing the coursework. Heck, young men’s wages are no higher than they were 50 years ago. For the first time, in the 2010s, young Americans aged 18 to 34 were more likely to be living at home with their parents than in their own home with a partner. Serious question: How much worse could we do here?

Cass makes suggestions: “Alongside the push to get phones and social media apps out of young hands, could we convert youth sports back to gaggles of kids chasing a ball around the field in town?” And what about the great scramble to get Junior into a selective university? Well-to-do parents encourage their kids to enroll in enrichment programs and take internships with save-the-world organizations, both regarded as key elements of successful college applications these days. Cass suggests refocusing admissions on standardized tests. He’s right to do so. Setting one or two hurdles in their paths leaves teenagers with a great deal more freedom to be teenagers instead of groomed thoroughbreds. 

• I came of age in the 1970s. In those years, the SAT carried a great deal of weight. As a result, my sometimes-­dissolute participation in boring high school classes and my imperfect compliance with class requirements were not dispositive. Moreover, Kaplan and other test prep companies were not yet perceived as necessities. One simply took the test on the assigned day. Say what you will about the “unfairness” of admission on the basis of test scores, the arrangement was a great deal less stressful than today’s system. 

• The University of Pennsylvania is offering a writing seminar, “Abolish the Family.” From the course description: “In this seminar, we will look at the history of family abolition and its threads through various other movements, examine variations in cultural models of the family, and imagine new models of collective care together.” Again, the open-society consensus blesses courses like this. It tells us that the decline of mental health among the young, like all other problems, arises from overly repressive institutions. Disintegrate the family, and life will be more fluid, flexible, and fulfilling! 

• As Penn indulges every fashion on the left, it punishes conservatives. After two years of disciplinary proceedings against law professor (and First Things author) Amy Wax, the university upheld the sanctions it had imposed for her “crimes,” one of which was to notice that a middle-class work ethic and self-discipline can do much to bring about success in life, another of which was to notice that affirmative action misplaces unprepared black students into academically competitive environments, which is why they often end up in the lower reaches of class rankings. These and other statements were adduced as evidence that Wax creates a “discriminatory environment,” even though no evidence has been brought forward showing that Wax has discriminated against her students. 

• After lamenting the missteps of the present pontificate, a friend observed: “On the other hand, I went to the Latin Mass today at St. Rita’s in Alexandria, VA. It was standing room only, and there were so many children on the laps of so many veiled mothers, it was hard not to feel at least a little hopeful about the future of the Church.” 

• In the preface to his 1989 collection of essays, The Philosopher on Dover Beach, Roger Scruton writes:

The culture of Europe, and the civilization that has sprung from it, are not yet dead. The opportunity remains to give our best to them, and to receive, in reward, the experience of belonging. For a century or more, Western man has listened to prophecies of his own decline, has been schooled in guilt and self-abnegation, and has doubted the civilizing force of his beliefs, his institutions and his way of life. Since nothing has ever been put in the place of those good things, save tinsel illusions and lawless power, the result of this self-repudiation has been a kind of active nihilism—a nihilism not of the mind and soul only, but of the forms of social life and the structures of political power.

I dare say that active nihilism has gotten stronger in the ensuing decades (“Abolish the family!”). Still, opportunities for recovery and restoration remain. Indeed, they have perhaps multiplied, as the proliferation of schools dedicated to classical education suggests and my friend’s observations about the Latin Mass indicate. What’s needed these days is an active piety, a spirit of affirmation devoted to repair, that faces down active nihilism. 

• New York Times religion writer Ruth Graham reports on the growing gaps between men and women. Gen-Z men are less likely to graduate from college than their female peers. In many major cities, they earn less than women. There’s a countertrend, however: Young men are spiritually ahead of their female peers. Graham: “It is young men who now register higher in ­attachment to basic Christian beliefs, in church ­attendance and in frequency of Bible reading.” They place a higher value on family life, as well. Graham notes a recent Pew survey: “Childless young men are likelier than childless young women to say they want to become parents someday, by a margin of 12 percentage points.” Young men are more conservative ­politically, ­overwhelmingly more likely to vote for Trump than ­Harris. Young women break in the opposite direction. Overall, it seems that the rising generation of women is increasingly loyal to the progressive ­promise that life’s greatest satisfactions are material: career, travel, consumption. Young men are turning in a ­different, countercultural direction. I fear that the war between the sexes is likely to get worse, not ­better. 

• Kamala Harris has largely refrained from staking out policy positions—except on the question of abortion-on-demand. In a September 23 interview, she advocated for encoding into federal law the abortion-­on-demand regime that held sway under Roe. Here is what she said: 

I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe, and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to put back into law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their [sic] own body and not have their [sic] government tell them [sic] what to do. 

Donald Trump’s betrayals of the pro-life cause are disappointing. Harris’s enthusiasm for abortion, shared by far too many Democrats, is chilling. 

• On September 20, senior editor Julia Yost and regular columnist Liel Leibovitz joined me for our first-ever ­Editor’s Circle webinar. Our theme was “The Promise of Renewal.” Where do we see the active piety that I describe above, the antidote to active nihilism? The Editor’s Circle is our community of core supporters. To learn more and make an Editor’s Circle gift, visit ­supportfirstthings.com/EC. 

• I’m pleased to announce that Veronica Clarke will serve as deputy editor, overseeing our web publications. Vicky was a junior fellow from 2019 through 2021, and she has served as associate editor for the last three years.  

• Nathaniel Stanley of Bangor, Maine seeks to form a ROFTers group. To become a founding member, contact him at nathaniel.stanley@maine.edu.