Reviewing two books by conservative authors who see the decline of Christianity as contributing to our country’s current political disquiet, Jack Butler writes:

You Shall Be as Gods: Pagans, Progressives, and the Rise of the Woke Gnostic Left by the talk-radio host Erick Erickson and Pagan America: The Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come by the Federalist’s senior editor John Daniel Davidson . . . confront two pressing, related problems: the weakening of Christianity in America and the rise of a competing belief system. The authors themselves, though both on the right, differ on much (having recently disagreed on, for example, the viability of Reaganite conservatism). But their books are strikingly similar in diagnosis. There is much wisdom, both in their agreements and in their disagreements.

While the politics of the radical, post-Christian left certainly tend toward hostility to Jews, would American Jews really benefit from the political arrangements Erickson or Davidson would prefer? Butler addresses this question, if only indirectly:

Intra-Christian conflict, a feature of American life and sometimes even instantiated into law (see, for example, state-level Blaine amendments), fits uneasily into his portrayal of a halcyon Christian America, as does the fact that many of the very rights he says originated and were protected in that America came under threat during times of more openly professed Christianity. The extent of his entangling of America’s political tradition with its religious one, moreover, leaves it unclear to me whether he thinks non-Christians can be good Americans.

He could also benefit from a helping of Erickson’s perspective, not necessarily on the nature of the challenge Christians face today (on which they largely agree), but on how to face it. “Evil is not partisan,” he stresses; God sees things differently from how we do. “Not everything you dislike is disliked by God, and God will not find fault in everything simply because you find fault in it.” The problem we face is “not a partisan problem, a political problem, a social problem, or an economic problem,” but “a spiritual problem,” one that requires a spiritual solution. . . .

I believe the American people retain or can regain great virtue, that even amid our challenges we still have plenty to work from.

Robert Clark explains why the resumption of hostilities is both just and necessary:

These latest Israeli strikes come after weeks of consistent Palestinian provocation; they have repeatedly broken the terms of the cease-fire which they claimed they were so desperate for. There have been numerous [unsuccessful] bus bombings near Tel Aviv and Palestinian-instigated clashes in the West Bank. Fifty-nine Israeli hostages are still held in captivity.

In fact, Hamas and their Palestinian supporters . . . have always known that they can sit back, parade dead Israeli hostages live on social media, and receive hundreds of their own convicted terrorists and murderers back in return. They believed they could get away with the October 7 pogrom.

One hopes Hamas’s leaders will get the message. Meanwhile, many inside and outside Israel seem to believe that, by resuming the fighting, Jerusalem has given up on rescuing the remaining hostages. But, writes Ron Ben-Yishai, this assertion misunderstands the goals of the present campaign. “Experience within the IDF and Israeli intelligence,” Ben-Yishai writes, “has shown that such pressure is the most effective way to push Hamas toward flexibility.” He outlines two other aims:

The second objective was to signal to Hamas that Israel is not only targeting its military wing—the terror army that was the focus of previous phases of the war up until the last cease-fire—but also its governance structure. This was demonstrated by the targeted elimination of five senior officials from Hamas’s political and civilian administration. . . . The strikes also served as a message to mediators, particularly Egypt, that Israel opposes Hamas remaining in any governing or military capacity in post-war Gaza.

The third objective was to create intense military pressure, coordinated with the U.S., on all remaining elements of the Shiite “axis of resistance,” including Yemen’s Houthis, Hamas, and Iran.