The Aaron Renn Show

This month's newsletter explains why American Christians, in particular evangelicals, having been reduced to a disfavored minority in the negative world, need to start acting like minority. That is, they need to focus much more on their own internal community strength and health - their private good. This is how all minority groups have always behaved. This doesn't mean ignoring mission, the common good, etc. But you can't give somebody something you don't have yourself. I examine several case studies, including black Americans, Hispanics in Chicago, Catholic in the early to mid-20th century, and the Mormons. Additionally, I provide some starter ideas for what this new focus on community well-being might look like. Above all, the important thing is to make the shift to a minority mindset.

I review a few perspectives on strategic decision making, including Jim Wilson's application of the "strategic point." As a bonus, we'll talk about what you can learn from the Big 10 conference signing on USC and UCLA.

Some thoughts about the reversal of Roe. vs. Wade.  This includes observations on the unintended consequences of violating norms, why the moral vision of the pro-life movement has been more effective than the utilitarian arguments advanced by conservatism generally, the power and importance of a generational perspective, and why a total abortion ban may not be as popular with the American public as some believe.

Online men's gurus typically use a version of the "hero's journey" or the "rags to riches"  to sell you on their products. They tell you how they hit rock bottom, then transformed themselves, then created the amazing life they have today. You too can have that life - if you follow the same script. This is a powerful narrative structure and completely legitimate to use in marketing, yet it has always left me cold. My personal life does follow something of that storyline, but it was not my efforts and plan but rather random events (or, if you prefer, God's sovereign control) that seem more dominant in determining the outcome. We are not always the hero. We have to remember that "unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain." While there's nothing wrong with using a hero's journey storyline, we should be humble in recognizing but that for incredible good fortune,  we would not have achieved whatever success we have.

This month's newsletter is a repost from a new Substack called Kennaquhair on the missing heroic feminine. The author explores the nature of archetypal stories and explains why the feminine heroic archetypal story has been under-developed.  He also explores the nature of the heroic feminine through the character of the Biblical Miriam, and gives other examples of this archetype.  The failure to have a well articulated heroic feminine has caused problems in our society, and rectifying this is an important to-do for addressing many of our cultural problems.Subscribe to Kennaquahair's Substack: https://kennaquhair.substack.com/

Paul Vanderklay and Bethel McGrew join me to discuss my three worlds of evangelicalism framework and their perspectives on the current state of the evangelical church in the US. This interview will be streamed live in front of an audience at an event in Wheaton, Illinois.Paul Vanderklay's Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGsD...Bethel McGrew's Substack: https://bethelmcgrew.substack.com/Note: This episode may have audio problems in some spots.

The desire for a transcendent connection to the past and future is a primal human desire. We want to know where we came from. We want to know that we will be remembered in the future, that the experience and possessions we've accumulated will live on in and with others. Our world, which is explicitly liberationist, attempts to destroy these longings and organic connection to a lineage beyond ourselves. But it hasn't succeeded, as the rise of people doing 23 & Me or researching their family tree shows. Thus our world will continue to create dissatisfactions and anxieties in the people.

Michael Anton has a new essay talking about conservative funding of art and journalism. I discuss this, as well as reiterate my points about conservative organizations not being especially interested in primary or ethographic research either. But even with funding or institutional support, there also has to be the talent to take these projects on, and the desire to seek truth, not just confirm pre-existing biases or dogmas.Michael Anton: The Tom Wolfe Model - https://im1776.com/2022/05/13/the-tom-wolfe-model/My Review of "American Made" - https://americancompass.org/the-commons/coming-apart-hoosier-state/Subscribe to my newsletter: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/

The idea of American exceptionalism has long blinded us to our country's legitimate faults. Having said that, activists attempt to use America's faults to morally debilitate its people in order to accomplish their own agenda.  As Americans, this is our country. We can love it for that alone, without any further justification. We don't have to apologize for America and how we feel about it anymore than a Han Chinese immigrant has to feel shame over what his people are doing to the Uighurs back in China.  No ethnic group or nationality should be subjected to this type of moral debilitation. We just rejected attempts to morally debilitate us. Yet we must also be willing to acknowledge America's faults where they exist, and work to correct them in the ways that we are positioned and feel called to do so. To riff off of Chesterton, we don't love America because she is great, but her greatness comes from our love of her. 

Reflections on the differing perspectives of people at the cultural center and the cultural periphery. Very successful people and those in the cultural center tend to have a more positive view of society and are less likely to support fundamental or outside the Overton Window change.The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2022/02/the-three-worlds-of-evangelicalism