“We cast down imaginations and every high thing that
exalts itself against God and bring every thought captive to the obedience of
Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5)
It is an
underlying assumption of our time that the foundations which ensured the multitudes
of blessings our society has enjoyed up to now, will continue to refresh
and refurbish civilizations’ engines into the future. This expectation applies not only to our deliberations
over earth-bound governance, but also to the persuasion of hearts and minds
with respect to the Kingdom of God. Both
challenges are connected. This view
assumes that such principles as were successful in the past can spring from out
of either anywhere or nowhere, when in fact they can only be expected to arise from
that single source which alone has both the power (of the Holy Spirit) and the
logical potential to nourish free societies which express moral, rational, and
spiritual principles. The reason is that
the human exchanges required to achieve this goal are both highly complex,
and they differ in kind from physical (materialistic) laws.
One of the firmest laws of science in
the realm of physics is the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics which holds
that all physical entities and the interactions between them are cooling
off, wearing out, and/or becoming increasingly random when limited to their own
resources. Yet even so, this same
inclination also applies to civilizations, societies, and individuals.[1] Note the following observations:
“We have no government armed with
power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and
religion…Our nation was made only for a holy and religious people. It is totally inadequate to the governance of
another.”[2]
“What reason do we have to suppose
that our civilization, in contrast to civilizations which have preceded it,
will endure?” The person who has
not faced this question is hardly alive.
That many different ways of life have flourished and have then declined
is beyond contradiction.
Consequently, there is no high probability that the fate of our
civilization will be different—unless…. The precise character of this ‘unless’ is of
such importance as to attract and to hold our best thinking…It is our most
urgent question.”[3]
“Civilization is hideously
fragile, you know that; and there’s not much between us and the horrors
beneath, just about a coat of varnish, wouldn’t you say?”[4]
“Where did the doing without
God end but in the undoing of man through the anger of God?”[5]
Our nation in recent decades has
been divided politically almost exactly 50/50 percent. Yet in our day, the means of publicly seeking
desired outcomes in social governance is rapidly drifting away from changing people’s
minds to instead fixating on strategic manipulation. With the exception of just a few commentators
on radio and television, I fear that
many conservative spokespersons either cannot, or will not, articulate the
intellectual foundations which undergird conservativism. Others weaken the same message by distancing
themselves from any necessary connection to our Maker and Redeemer.[6] To be continued
[1] Romans 1:18-32.
Notice that the effective means of this decline is not God’s decree, but
His giving humans over to their own devices.
[2] From John Adams, to the Massachusetts Militia on
October 11, 1798, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3102
[3] Elton Trueblood. The Company of the Committed.
(Harper and Brothers, 1961), p. 2
[4] C.P. Snow. A Coat of Varnish. (Scribner’s, 1979).
[5] Augustine, The City of God. (Image, 1958), p.
543.
[6] Russel Kirk. The Roots of American Order. (Regnery
Gateway, 1991), pp. 462,3. Referring to Orestes Brownson, Kirk wrote, “Justice
requires…the authority of religious truth…Without authority vested somewhere,
without moral principles that may be consulted confidently, Justice cannot long
endure anywhere. Yet modern liberalism and democracy are contemptuous of the
whole concept of moral authority.”
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