Published September 28, 2023
Why is it that conservatives always seem to lose? Sure, we get the occasional electoral success or judicial victory, but for at least the past generation, it’s felt like one step forward, two steps back. Cultural battle after cultural battle has gone to the left—on pornography, same-sex marriage, transgenderism, and more. Even the generational triumph of Dobbs seems to have been followed by a slew of setbacks at the state level, as pro-abortion activists have outmaneuvered or out-messaged the pro-life cause in a slew of ballot initiatives and court cases.
We could certainly identify specific causes of failure in many of these particular battles. We could also point to the overwhelming opinion-shaping power of left-leaning educational and media institutions, which can leave conservatives feeling like David facing Goliath more often than not. Worse still, the very tide of civilization seems to be flowing against us, as we find ourselves more and more enmeshed in a technological age that seems determined to remake nature to suit the basest whims of human desire.
All this is true, but perhaps there is another fundamental factor at work: Conservatives don’t make good activists.
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Brad Littlejohn (Ph.D., University of Edinburgh) is the founder and president of the Davenant Institute. He also works as a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and has taught for several institutions, including Moody Bible Institute–Spokane, Bethlehem College and Seminary, and Patrick Henry College. He is recognized as a leading scholar of the English theologian Richard Hooker and has published and lectured extensively in the fields of Reformation history, Christian ethics, and political theology. He lives in Landrum, S.C., with his wife, Rachel, and four children.
Brad Littlejohn was a Fellow in EPPC’s Technology and Human Flourishing and Evangelicals in Civic Life programs from 2022-2025. His wide-ranging research and writing encompasses work on the relation of digital technology and embodiment, the appropriate limits of free speech, the nature of freedom and authority in the Christian tradition, and the retrieval of a Protestant natural law ethic.
