Top 5: Moving Culture Online

+ the declining Christian Consensus

Despite its rocky/sad-looking start, the Rockefeller Christmas tree dresses up nicely. Image credit: Diane Bondareff/AP.

The top 5 articles for your week:

1. “The Decline of the Christian Consensus” (National Review)

   Because, “[U]ltimately, conservatives can’t hope to win the culture war until large numbers of elites begin to make the Peter Fromm movement in reverse, abandoning the certainties of progressivism and growing frustrated with the high agnosticism of liberalism, and finding in the old-time religion made new a place where they can rest. And to the extent that conservative arguments about the culture war seem polarized between Saint Benedict and Constantine, be­tween the mona­stery and the crusade, perhaps the synthesis, the change of fortune, will arrive when God sends America a Saint Paul.”

2. “Quarantine Brain” (Vulture)

   Because this insightful essay points out something quite obvious: with COVID shutting down many channels of culture, most of culture has moved online. And that’s huge.

3. “Finding Our Way in a Post-Trump America” (Sojourners Magazine)

   Because this collection of brief essays provides insight as to some of the common strands, and different points of emphasis, among a range of Sojourners-friendly type voices.

4. “The Children of Pornhub” (NYT)

   Because this Nicholas Kristoff article made waves this week — and has sparked changes from Pornhub and companies like Mastercard — and reveals an underbelly of our culture. Warning: there are descriptions of child sexual exploitation and sexual assault.

5. “The parental burnout crisis has reached a tipping point” (Vox)

   Because the numbers are climbing, schools are closing, daycares are closing, and parents and guardians are often working from home with no relief in sight. How will this change parenthood in America? How will it change how we think about families and what we owe them?