Dear Reader,

We’ve interrupted our regularly scheduled programming to acknowledge two cancellation attempts which took place this past Friday.
 
The first: the attempted cancellation of a book event (co-sponsored with COMPACT magazine) for FIRST THINGS contributor Mary Harrington. With contract signed and deposit paid, the venue pulled the plug on our event without notice at the behest of a social media mob. Not to worry: We will be hosting Harrington at a new venue next week.
 
The second: a hack. On Friday evening, a hacker tried to gain access to the FIRST THINGS website and take it down. A few staff members got wise to the scheme and worked with our web developer to foil the hacker within a few hours.
 
In a few weeks, we will be sending out our 2023 Spring Campaign letter. In it, I write about the very real costs of holding the line for orthodox faith. Sadly, many institutions have wilted in the face of the storm, either shying away from contentious issues or actively burning a pinch of incense to our new regime.
 
Not FIRST THINGS. Stand with us by making a tax-deductible gift to FIRST THINGS today.

A while back, I invited Carl Trueman to a seminar on transhumanism. “Well, if you’re going down fighting, count me in!”
 
“Oh, I intend to fight. But I do not intend to go down.”
 
We do not intend to go down. We’ve observed enough cancellations to know that much depends on how the cancelé responds. You can capitulate with a groveling apology and wait for the swarm to move on, but it’s never the same afterward. Not to mention, you’ve given the mob exactly what it wants.
 
Or, you can stand firm, recognizing that the mob’s power is wholly tethered to its ability to instill fear. As a reader of FIRST THINGS, you can guess which approach we have taken, and will always take. You have stood with us . . . and for the truth of religious orthodoxy.
 
Redouble your support for this undaunted magazine by making a tax-deductible gift today.

Yours,

R. R. Reno
Editor