First Things

Is Britain’s Social Media Ban a Trojan Horse for Censorship?
Niall Gooch

“There is a tension here, between the commendable aim of getting children off their phones and limiting their exposure to dubious material, and the knowledge that the government will almost certainly use the law as a Trojan Horse for further speech restrictions.”

Available in full at

Is Britain’s Social Media Ban a Trojan Horse for Censorship? - First Things My mother is fond of saying that children spell love T-I-M-E, by which she means they have an instinctive understanding of the role that sustained attention plays in the...

“It has long been obvious that the root of the movement begun by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, which continues today in the SSPX, was not simply the archbishop’s rejection of the postconciliar liturgy, but a rejection of the Second Vatican Council’s teaching on the Church, salvation, religious freedom, Church–state relations, and the Church’s relationship to other religions”

The SSPX Leadership Against Scripture and Tradition
by George Weigel

Read the full piece at https://firstthings.com/the-sspx-leadership-against-scripture-and-tradition/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=Dailypiece&utm_term=SSPX

In our latest episode of Secret Third Thing, First Things senior editor Dan Hitchens joins Virginia and Germán to discuss Magnifica Humanitas. Is it a disappointment or a triumph? Is it really a Boomer document? Why hasn’t Leo XIV declared a Butlerian Jihad? Will artificial intelligence kill us all? Is worry about computer consciousness overwrought?

Listen in full at

The Church of Claude - First Things In this episode, First Things senior editor Dan Hitchens joins Virginia and Germán to discuss Magnifica Humanitas. Is it a disappointment or a triumph? Is it really a Boomer...

Some of our latest pieces:

The Knicks Win, Mamdani Triumphs?
John Ketcham
https://tinyurl.com/Firstthings-KnicksMamdani

The World That Spielberg Made
German S. Diaz Del Castello
https://tinyurl.com/Firstthings-Spielberg

In the Land of St. Agatha
Jacob Akey
https://tinyurl.com/Firstthings-LandofStAgatha

How to Destroy the Black Family
In the ​latest episode of Conversations, Delano Squires joins Mark Bauerlein to discuss his recent book, The Vanishing Black Family.

Listen at https://firstthings.com/how-to-destroy-the-black-family/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=Podcast&utm_term=Family

“This is the heart of the clash between revolutionaries and counterrevolutionaries: The revolutionaries desire to create a world severed from inheritance and faith, insisting on a secular anthropology—‘man made in the image of man’ rather than in the image of God.”

Remembering the French Counterrevolution
Kristen Ziccarelli

Full piece available at https://firstthings.com/remembering-the-french-counterrevolution/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=Dailypiece&utm_term=Rev

“Christians of the past were willing to be exiled, even die, over strictly maintaining orthodoxy regarding who Jesus Christ is. Perhaps our own willingness to respectfully maintain that line can help the LDS Church to understand that belief in the Triune God is positively non-negotiable to the Christian faith.”

Are Latter-day Saints Christians?
Jeremy M. Christiansen

Read in full at https://firstthings.com/no-latter-day-saints-are-not-christians/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=Dailypiece&utm_term=LDS

“The women who flourish are not those who win the girlboss game, perfect the tradwife aesthetic, or embrace Marxism’s spiritual statism. They are those who are rooted in genuine religious community, mentored by wise older women, and protected by faithful men.”

Neither Girlboss nor Tradwife
Emma Waters

Available to read at https://firstthings.com/neither-girlboss-nor-tradwife/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=Dailypiece&utm_term=EmmaW

“In deciding how to govern this technology, we are not merely writing policy. We are renewing—or surrendering—the moral basis of our life together.”

The American Covenant’s Answer to AI
Josh Hawley

Read the full piece at https://tinyurl.com/Answertoai

Please join us on August 7–8, 2026, for two days of intellectual enrichment and good company as we explore the topic of beauty. The retreat will feature a keynote lecture, a panel, and seminar discussions led by instructors from Eastern University’s Templeton Honors College.

The full retreat program will be held at the Union League Club of New York.

For more details visit https://tinyurl.com/IntellectualRetreat