John Shelton

Washington, D.C., United States

Writer and Editor at Freelance

💼 @AmericanFreedom | 📝 @wsj, @nro, @wngdotorg, @nationalaffairs, @mereorthodoxy, @provmagazine | 👦🏼👦🏼👧🏼👶🏼 w/ @annakateshelt | 🦬 🌊⚓️✝️

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Articles

In defense of cheap goods

1 month ago | wng.org | John Shelton

On the heels of the Trump Administration’s “Liberation Day” tariff rollout, trade protectionists have been steadily workshopping their best arguments in support of these import taxes that Americans pay on foreign goods.
Don’t wait to have kids

2 months ago | wng.org | John Shelton

“Don’t wait to start having kids” was the best advice I ever received as a newlywed. While conventional wisdom says to put off parenthood for a couple years to focus on your marriage or your household finances, the truth is that you will never be fully ready and there are serious costs to waiting. First, and most practically, you never know if you will even be able to have kids. One in six couples struggle with infertility, a risk that only increases with age.
The Institutional Roots of America’s Political Crisis

Mar 17, 2025 | mereorthodoxy.com | John Shelton

This article was published in the Winter 2025 edition of our print Journal. To read for free online, please Subscribe. If you would like to receive future editions of the print Journal, become a Basic or Solidarity Member today. The course of American Christianity over the next thirty years—if not the rest of the twenty-first century—will be entirely downstream of James Davison Hunter.
Review: ‘Called to Freedom’ by Brad Littlejohn

Feb 7, 2025 | thegospelcoalition.org | John Shelton

When modern Americans talk about freedom, we tend to mean freedom from constraint. Our Supreme Court provided one of the clearest statements of this late American sense of freedom in its infamous decision upholding the legality of abortion, Planned Parenthood v.
Clearing the Record on the ‘Family Policymaking Assessment’

Nov 25, 2024 | ifstudies.org | John Shelton

“Shelton lauds the creation of a 'Family Policymaking Assessment,' which purported to analyze all new legislation from the standpoint of its impact on families. Yet the 'Assessment,' in the telling of long-time family policy scholar Allan Carlson, never had the teeth its supporters intended. As written, it 'avoided any language that would threaten the interests of big business,' Carlson wrote in his 2003 history of family policy, The American Way.
“Digital Cliques in Search of Political Power”: A Review of Kevin Vallier’s All The Kingdoms of the World

Nov 20, 2024 | providencemag.com | John Shelton

For nearly a decade, a strain of political theology known as “integralism” was ascendant. Kevin Vallier’s All The Kingdoms of the World (2023) tells the story of integralism’s rising star and explores the limits of its case for illiberal political rule. In doing so, Vallier leveled integralism’s reputation as a coherent philosophical movement.
American Dominance in Space Isn’t Inevitable

Oct 16, 2024 | realcleardefense.com | John Shelton

The United States won the initial space race in the 1960s, but it could lose a far more consequential Space Marathon in the years to come. Recent events may foreshadow the end of an American-led order among the stars, with civilizational consequences for both Christianity and foreign policy, as China and other adversaries stand eager to make a bid against American dominance. Read Full Article » Show comments Hide Comments Related Articles
American Dominance in Space Isn’t Inevitable

Oct 14, 2024 | providencemag.com | John Shelton

The United States won the initial space race in the 1960s, but it could lose a far more consequential Space Marathon in the years to come. Recent events may foreshadow the end of an American-led order among the stars, with civilizational consequences for both Christianity and foreign policy, as China and other adversaries stand eager to make a bid against American dominance. America is currently the undisputed steward of space.
Plant children or sow disaster

Sep 23, 2024 | wng.org | John Shelton

For thousands of years, China carried the flame of a formidable natural law tradition. Under the rule of the all-powerful communist government, that tradition has been undermined. Recent headlines witness the radical consequences of the Chinese Communist Party’s social engineering. Like many communist nations, China ran authoritarian experiments on the family and the natural order.
The American people deserve a leader who will fix the debt

Aug 25, 2024 | bizpacreview.com | John Shelton

The newly adopted 2024 Democratic Platform states that the policies of former President Donald Trump “added more to our national debt than has ever been added in a presidential term.”It is true that in 2020, the federal deficit leaped by an extraordinary $2 trillion. Indeed, Republicans are not taking the national debt as seriously as they once did, eliminating any mention of it from their platform this year.