On This Easter, Pray For Courage

Interesting, as a follow up to yesterday's post on "ordered liberty" is an article today at the American Thinker by Denise McAllister entitled The Death Of Conservatism. McAllister makes a point, and it is profound, that true conservatism is bound up in Christian beliefs. God is the Creator of man, gives man his nature, his sexual identity, and his purpose. He orders society, and everyone who steps away from this belief can not be a true conservative.

Friedrich Nietzsche's "The Gay Science" contains one of the most famous and haunting quotes of the nineteenth century: "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him." In a cry of prophetic passion, the Madman of the parable challenges those who killed God to accept the consequences of such a brazen act and recognize that they must become like gods "to be worthy of it."

This usurpation of divine authority by man, and thereby rejection of God's order of nature, has seeped into America's social imagination, reshaping what was once implausible about human identity into something plausible, if not obligatory. Conservatism has not escaped this moral and existential insurrection. For some time, the conservative movement has been sickened, but now it has reached the point of death. Now it lies beside God in the graveyard of America's history, for as God goes, so goes conservatism.

The cause for such a grim and pessimistic claim is none other than the reality that the foundational principle on which conservatism stands has been not only soundly rejected by the culture at large, but betrayed by conservatives themselves. This is not a political statement. You'll find no finger-pointing at nationalistic populism, Trumpism, pragmatic libertarianism, or even establishment puritanism here. These are mere symptoms, death throes, and feeble attempts to scrape together the last vestiges of American liberties — albeit in often conflicting ways. The issue here is cultural-moral, where the heart of conservatism once beat.

Here she is saying that it is not enough to believe in conservative principles. In the end, the conservative principles are derived from God, and you must believe in God Himself.  For only by trusting in the God of Creation can one find the courage to resist things that go against the ordered liberty we depend upon.  McAllister probably says it better here:

Quoting Edmund Burke, Kirk says there is a reason conservatives are called "the party of order." This order is not just external; it starts within the person. "The twentieth-century conservative is concerned, first of all, for the regeneration of the spirit and character — with the perennial problem of the inner order of the soul, the restoration of the ethical understanding, and the religious sanction upon which any life worth living is founded. This is conservatism at its highest."

This theme flows throughout American history. From Washington to Adams to Jefferson — and all true liberty-lovers since — American freedom has been rooted in "the transcendent order." Kirk went so far as to say, "I allow that, if no supreme ruler exists, wise to form, and potent to enforce, the moral law, there is no sanction to any contract, virtual or even actual, against the will of prevalent power."

St. John wrote that Christ said disciples should be in the World, but not of the World. But what did he mean? I don't think he meant for us to be monks or hermits, but rather to live an example to others. Unfortunately all of us fall short of the mark. But we can not let that stand in our way. We must to the degree possible, have the courage to set an example, and not to compromise with people who present things contrary to God's will. But it is in this very way that conservatives have done exactly that. For this reason, conservatism is dying.  At the same time, we need to be compassionate and forgiving.  But doing so, we can not compromise.

How many conservatives, even if they accept elements of God's order of nature, welcome people with ideologies and beliefs opposed to that order, plunging conservatism into chaos? The "big tent" of conservatism might involve temporary alliances with others acting within the political sphere toward a particular political end, but when it comes to the nature of conservatism itself and its impact on culture, aligning with and adopting views that seek to destroy God's order is foolish and self-destructive. Conservatives might get to the endgame of Survivor with such alliances, but when the true intent and ideological trajectory of those in control is to eradicate objective truth and divine order, they won't survive a day past their former allies' need to assert their godless will into the game.

Those who deny God's created order and purposes when it comes to human identity, sexual identity, and individuality are no friend to the civil society in the long run. They will inevitably turn on those who still believe that God is King of this world. This point has been lost on too many conservatives as they have welcomed haters of God and his moral order not only into their tent, but into their hearts and their minds — a self-deluded treachery of "openness" that has softy sounded the death knell of conservatism in America.

I pray each day that He will grant me the wisdom, strength, and courage to carry out His will today. On this Easter day, perhaps we all need to do that.