Promo for First Things: A Different Kind of Pride Flag, by Carter Skeel

By Carter Skeel, First Things, June 16, 2023

I hope you’ll take up the standard boldly with us by making a contribution to our 2023 spring campaign today.

It’s striking to read Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage today. The Civil War novel follows Private Henry Fleming, a deserter who returns to the army to atone for his cowardice. Most notably, he takes up his regiment’s flag and charges, unarmed, toward enemy fire, with the goal of capturing their flag. On the one hand, the idea of giving the last full measure of devotion for a standard seems a bit strange today. On the other, flags have undoubtedly retained the symbolism of yesteryear. In 2023, to invert the famous (and probably apocryphal) Freud quote, there is no such thing as a flag that is just a flag.

There are a few key ways that First Things acts as the standard-bearer for orthodoxy. …

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