Welcome to The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal! This new section of 1819 News is your place for commentary, advice, and musings on life and renewing the culture.

The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal aims to do just what its name implies: renew the culture.
A culture war is just as serious as a traditional war, even more so in many cases. There is no neutral in this fight, it’s a total war for the very soul of our nation.
Religion – particularly Christianity – is at the core of society because it puts us in right relationship with God. And when we’re in right relationship with God, everything else falls into place, namely, our relationships with family, work, community, and government.
Not all AI technology is bad, especially if it enhances your job and makes it easier. Nonetheless, the only way that harmful or dangerous technologies will succeed is when people stop thinking critically about them.
There’s no weekend better than the present to reevaluate and change our indifference toward Christianity.
Why is it that numbers of men seem to be turning to Christianity, but not so the women – at least not in the same dramatic numbers?
Reclaiming our creative heritage helps us rise above whatever social media has told us is what we should wear if we want to be beautiful or sophisticated or a la mode.
The study of history deepens the humanity of our young people and makes them better equipped to face the challenges of the future.
There’s an entire generation of women who have been sold a specific lie.
Our society is rapidly declining because our souls have decayed. It is only through family and education that future souls can be restored to their potential glory.
Give your children a nudge toward the past, and you may find them off on a lifelong love affair with the American story.
Children give people a different perspective on life. Yes, they’re messy, loud and needy … but they also help us as adults to think more long-term, grow less selfish, and even ponder God and His ways.
April 9 marks the 160th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, but practically no one is talking about it. The Civil War has been banished, exiled – practically erased from cultural memory today.
The shelves that many of us roamed as children no longer contain wholesome stories; instead, they often contain pornographic and sexual deviant material that many teachers, librarians, and public figures think children should have the right to see.
You can’t truly love what you don’t know. Ignorance of the American past means that patriotism, the love for one’s country, will disappear, which in turn transforms that country into a hollow shell of its former self.
Culture is now cannibalistic, feeding on itself.
In the grand scheme of things, these simple gestures don’t take that long to teach our children – at least, if we continually model them to the little eyes watching us.
Men were once criticized for upside-down priorities, for putting career and advancement ahead of their wives and families. In copycatting them, these liberal women have taken an extra step and eradicated husbands and children altogether.
If one distills the main thrust of Social Justice, one comes to understand that it is the belief that a just society cannot exist until all identity groups have parity with the others.
Want to see our free culture continue? Then start raising an intelligent kid … and rest assured that it doesn’t take a genius to do it.
Poems can help us savor and appreciate life when it’s good and act as a bulwark and booster when it goes bad.
Young people who do not read books or know their history will one day become more easily manipulated and lied to by demagogues.

This type of civil disobedience can’t be done in one short little protest. It’s a long march that requires patience and commitment, but one that offers great rewards not only for yourself but for your children.
As a customer, I’m very disappointed in what I’m experiencing in customer service as a patron of several fast-food franchises. Maybe you’ve experienced the same.
For better and for worse, America has spent the last 50 years replacing a patriarchy with a matriarchy. The “oppressors” have become the oppressed.

Think DEI programs are on their way out the door? Think again. They seem to be alive and well, but not for women and minorities. This time they’re for men and boys.
This spirit of change emanating from the broader U.S. government, all the way down through the larger private sector, even into our little lumber mill, suggests a unity in our world that isn’t often discussed.
Faithful craftsmanship has its eventual reward – and that is something which can bring joy to the heart of every American.
The future of America is in good hands. These young adults, the kids I sometimes call them, will be fine, and so will our country.
Patrick Henry's life and letters provide sound advice for a happy, lasting marriage.