Free Republic

It’s becoming increasingly easy to separate the sheep from the goats as we watch the religious, cultural, and political climate become increasingly divisive. David French, a religious leftist who devotes his life to standing against conservative Christianity in the public sphere, stands at the epicenter of this great divide stamping and stammering his feet as he continues to detach himself from reality. As a man who claims to be a Christian, his attempt to divorce politics from theology is a clamant disregard for actual biblical principles that are meant to guide believers and hold the final authority over our hearts,...

The New York Times columnist David French has debased himself to become the Paul Krugman of the culture wars by being consistently on the wrong side of the argument. French, the pompous NeverTrumper, lectured in his latest piece of propaganda that the “Actual Danger” of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – already embroiling universities and workplaces – wasn’t the ideology itself. Instead, he pointed to the “unconstitutional” way in which DEI was being “advanced” through speech codes and other restrictive measures. But French still proceeded to ridiculously defend the concept. French led-off his Jan. 14 op-ed claiming that “[DEI] — like...

The consequences of Cancel Culture can be more dire than we thinkIt's been more than three years since former University of North Carolina Wilmington professor Mike Adams killed himself after being pushed into early retirement for offensive tweets. My friend David French and my colleague Robert Shibley wrote powerful articles about it at the time, but I also wanted to say my piece.I first met Mike Adams back in 2001, when he was under investigation for responding dismissively to a student who was, as Mike summarized later, “blaming the 9/11 attacks on the United States Government,” all while the rubble...

The New York Times‘s so-called “conservative” columnist David French has claimed in a new opinion editorial that supporting Donald Trump is worse than supporting slavery. French’s bizarre op-ed essentially argues that slavers did not know any better, while MAGA supporters should, oddly comparing the forced ownership of human beings to supporting America First policies.

Far-Left justice correspondent for The Nation and frequent MSNBC pundit Elie Mystal suggested a "rich White person" take Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to "see the Titanic" amid reports of a missing tourist submersible. Mystal was criticized for "wishing death" on Alito and later claimed it was just a "joke." Responding to a tweet from New York Times columnist David French calling his comments "vile," Mystal said it was a "joke" and included a link to the Supreme Court's Dobbs opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade last year, arguing, "This is vile." Several on Twitter accused Mystal of "wishing death"...

As we approach the first anniversary of Russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, two ominous trends are emerging at once. First, Russia is doubling down. It’s pouring fresh troops into Ukraine and launching new offensive operations. Second, poll after poll after poll demonstrate that American support for Ukraine is slipping away. While Americans have sympathy for Ukraine, declining percentages are willing to spend American resources to keep Ukraine in the fight. Yet the outcome of the war is simply too important — to America as well as Ukraine — to allow our support to falter. On the war’s anniversary...

It’s been an interesting few days. Ever since I wrote (first in The Atlantic and then on Sunday here in The Dispatch) in support of the Senate version of the Respect for Marriage Act, I’ve been subject to an absolute torrent of online criticism, mainly from fellow Christians. The culmination of the critiques came from Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who took to the pages of World Magazine to pen a piece called “The Parable of David French.” “This is how conservatism dies,” he wrote. “This is how marriage is surrendered.” That’s dramatic! But it’s not...

From time to time, just one human story becomes something akin to a modern parable. David French—writer, lawyer, public intellectual—is now that person. It is no insult to say that French, in himself, contains multitudes. In two recent articles, French defends both what is wrongly called the “Respect for Marriage Act” and his own process of thinking about same-sex marriage. He says that he has written these articles as acts of personal intellectual honesty, and I have no reason to question his integrity of mind. What I mean to criticize most strenuously is the ideas he now promotes. I do...

The biggest news in domestic American politics in the past week was the absolutely shattering upset of Liz Cheney by Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman in Wyoming’s Republican primary for its at-large House seat. I mean, she got smashed worse than a wine aunt who just lost a national championship cat show. In a race that should have been hers for the taking, she was instead defeated by 37 points in one of the worst primary losses suffered by a sitting politician in recent history. If I sound like I’m vicariously gloating, it’s because I am. Yet, if you were to...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Following the U.S. Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling overturning the constitutionality of Roe v. Wade, columnist David French was seen trying to sit at the cool lunch table filled with Trump voters. "Pretty cool we overturned Roe, right fellas?" said French while holding his lunch bag of soy-based foods in one hand and waiting to receive a high five with his other hand. "I can't believe we all did it together as a team who always liked Drumpf. I mean, uh, Trump." The crowd of cool Trump voters barely noticed him as they were busy fist-bumping and listing Trump's many,...

In a post all about doubting the good faith of the left, he seems to have a blind spot as far as doubting the good faith of the left's frequent allies, the GOP "Establishment." He casts this as the "Establishment" actually supporting the right's policy positions, but being too cowardly and too weak to stand up to the media to push for them. In fact, the "Establishment" despises the right's positions. They are liberals. They always say the same thing: "Guys we're totally on your siiiiiiide on this issue, it's just not the right tiiiiiime for this, we have to...

See, it’s important that you not use undeniably accurate terms to describe our enemies because by doing so you may convey truthful information that hurts liberals and, according to our conservative cruise ship betters, that’s not who we are. Well, that’s certainly not who they are, because if there’s one thing they simply cannot accept it is victory. And that includes victory over perverts who what to chat up your young ‘uns in kindergarten. Accordingly, we are not supposed to call groomers “groomers” anymore because people draw the right conclusions when we do, and that certainly will not do. If...

Dear Never Trumpers: The Cruise Is Over How a generation of "conservative" intellectuals finally turned into Democrats A lot has happened since my well known essay "The Collapse of the Never Trumpers" appeared in 2018 — and none of it has been good for that tribe of pundits or their garden gnome leader, Bill Kristol. In fact, most of them have seen their careers collapse so spectacularly that only Michael Avenatti could really understand. George Will has semi-retired to a life of boring students to death as a commencement speaker at small colleges. Jonah Goldberg and Steven Hayes used to...

The Christian cold war will mean an increase in church splits, takeovers, and other power struggles as people choose sides on existential questions, including theology.Along with the rest of the country, American Christianity is in the middle of a cold war. As this war heats up, it will mean church splits, takeovers, fights over denominational resources, and other power struggles as the Donald Trump era has increasingly brought clarity and pushed people to choose sides on existential questions.The Southern Baptist Convention, the United States’ largest Protestant denomination, is one key example of this dynamic affecting American Christianity as a whole....

In early 2019, I published a short book that, gingerly, argued that the inevitable end-point of leftist arguments is that some demographic categories are simply born bad while others are born good; that all bad things that happen to the good people are the result of the bad people; and therefore the bad people must be punished in perpetuity. I use the adverb “gingerly” because, back then, nobody spelled out exactly what the plan is. As I put it, the Left knows that it is in a difficult rhetorical position. The heart of its argument is that some people are...

One of America’s most influential pastors is facing a crisis. No, it’s not the crisis of personal scandal. It’s the crisis of church division—over race, ideology, and minutiae of church procedure. Putting aside the procedural arguments, that division is a microcosm of the racial conflicts that are dividing the larger American church and the nation itself. David Platt is a bestselling author, the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board, and the pastor of McLean Bible Church (MBC), a huge and influential church located outside Washington, D.C. Platt is facing a revolt from self-described “conservative” congregants, a...

This is not about banning racists from speaking, but in using representative government to deny them the privilege of receiving taxpayer sinecures to help them pursue America's collapse.This is not about banning racists from speaking, but in using representative government to deny them the privilege of receiving taxpayer sinecures to help them pursue America's collapse. Here is what these authors propose in lieu of state legislatures ensuring good instruction in public schools:A wiser response to problematic elements of what is being labeled critical race theory would be twofold: propose better curriculums and enforce existing civil rights laws. Title VI and...

As I’ve written recently, Republicans have made serious gains in the battle to stop Critical Race Theory from becoming engrained in public schools. Parents have spoken out at school board meetings, elections have been won on the local level, and state-level bills to ban the propagation of CRT have passed. Some of the stand-outs in taking this issue seriously have been Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.The responses from the left provide evidence that they are on their heels. From claims that CRT isn’t being introduced into schools at all to the NEA pushing a plan to...

The question of how to counteract cancel culture goes far deeper than the question of legal or illegal speech.While some Republicans build their campaigns around cancel culture in the form of a broad bumper sticker slogan or rebuke the party for seeking leaders dissimilar to neoconservatives like Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the issue of standards—and what those standards ought to be—should be at the heart of the cancel culture discussion on the right. It’s time for conservatives to make morals a focal point and not overgeneralize by invoking free speech as an end-all, be-all. Cancel culture, which Federalist writer Tristan...

While David French and those like him are free to adopt every line the CDC manifests, there is room for well-informed and well-meaning Christians to disagree about COVID vaccinations. It’s surprising how unsurprising it is when white evangelical David French takes an opportunity to swing at other white evangelicals, as he did once again over the weekend with an article asking why “so many white Evangelicals [are] reluctant to consider the health of their community.”The article is about vaccines, of course, but it’s mostly about how Christians who are even hesitant to receive one have a “spiritual problem.” Before anyone...