Ross Douthat, How Michel Foucault Lost the Left and Won the Right (The New York Times)

“The idea that the left is relativistic belongs to an era when progressives were primarily defining themselves against white heteronormative Christian patriarchy, with Foucauldian acid as a solvent for the old regime. Nobody watching today’s progressivism at work would call it relativistic: Instead, the goal is increasingly to find new rules, new hierarchies, new moral categories to govern the post-Christian, post-patriarchal, post-cis-het world.”

Zack Stanton, How the ‘Culture War’ Could Break Democracy (Politico)

A fascinating interview with James Davison Hunter. “Culture wars always precede shooting wars. They don’t necessarily lead to a shooting war, but you never have a shooting war without a culture war prior to it, because culture provides the justifications for violence.”

Bari Weiss, Can You Be a Progressive and Support Israel? (Common Sense)

“Not only is Israel under siege from rocket fire, but the truth itself is under siege. There’s been an ongoing propaganda war and the narrative that is dominating is one that attempts to normalize Hamas and delegitimize Israel.” Related, here’s a brilliant take from  Bari Weiss on the antisemitism from the Left (“Jews aren’t oppressed or a minority; they’re white-passing and -adjacent”) and the Right (“Jews are fake white people”). (Timestamp: 52:45–57:47)

Andrew Wilson, Beautiful Difference: The (Whole-Bible) Complementarity of Male and Female (The Gospel Coalition)

Elizabeth Bruenig, I Became a Mother at 25, and I’m Not Sorry I Didn’t Wait (The New York Times)

A lovely, poignant piece. “There are good reasons to wait to have children and good reasons not to; it’s that latter notion that I often consider but rarely mention to friends of mine who are on the fence, knowing that they are typically inundated with unsolicited advice from older acquaintances and relatives who all seem to know precisely how to fix this putatively immature, allegedly selfish generation. That kind of scolding about growing up obscures the truest thing about having children, which is that it isn’t a chore but a pleasure, not the end of freedom as you know it but the beginning of a kind of liberty you can’t imagine.”

Allen C. Guelzo, Why We Must Forget the Lost Cause (The Gospel Coalition)

“In its fullest flower, from 1865 to 1915, the Lost Cause emerged—from a legion of Southern war memoirists, politicians, and even novelists—and coalesced around five basic contentions.”

Paul Putz, 5 American Sports History Books Christians Should Read (The Gospel Coalition)

“These five books, written by scholars and experts, help Christians consider such questions. I’ve selected one book for each member of the American sports ‘trinity’ (basketball, football, baseball), as well as two books that cover broader themes related to religion and national identity.”