An adult points out the obvious to "conservatives"

As a conservative, I am profoundly alienated by the "Republican"* party, as its primary mission is less about advancing a conservative political philosophy, to say nothing of contending for the moral principles foundational to the American republic, than ensuring the advantages of the most financially privileged among us. Its "conservatism" is to oppose proposals brought by the other government-sanctioned political party, but not to engage in any serious way with the issues of the day.

Some conservatives have more hope than I that American "conservatives" can mature past histrionics aimed primarily at winning the next election to engage constructively with today's social and political realities. Such a noble effort is R.R. Reno's The Triumph of Capitalism, which summarizes the true political crisis of our time thusly:

I want to be clear: The triumph of economic freedom is a good thing. It’s made possible a global economy that has lifted and promises to continue lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. But that’s only part of the story. If American conservatism is unwilling to face the fact that economic freedom creates social and therefore political problems—political problems that will require in one way or another limiting economic freedom—it will be irrelevant to our age.

*"Republican" in quotes because I think a party thus named should be working towards the restoration of the republic, as construed by the United States Constitution, rather than expanding the imperial powers of emperors they happen to like. But I'm funny like that.

Practical hints from a Lutheran pastor

Presbyterian identity was so eroded by the fundamentalist-modernist wars in the early twentieth century and the evangelical envy of the baby boomer era that conservative presbyterians tend to identify more easily with those outside their tradition than many within it. The majority, in my experience, lean Baptist: the congregation's individual identity and distinctives are paramount; focus tends to be on individual and family success over against integration into presbyterian tradition; children aren't considered genuine Christians until they make profession of faith. The minority of which I'm a part leans Lutheran: primary emphasis is on the means of grace and presbyterian distinctives; priority is on holistic integration into, and use of, presbyterian artifacts such as the Catechisms; the Christian life is envisioned as a slow progression from cradle to grave, always within the bounds of the Church and, generally, not much spiritual excitement between those two milestones (other than Bible camp).

Hence, Lutheran pastor Russell Saltzman's "A Parish Survival Guide for Senior Seminarians" strikes me as eminently practical, extremely useful, and grounded in the realities of pastoral ministry. It is a tad Lutheran, but one could do worse.

For example, lean Baptist instead.

The Man Comes Around

I get up an hour or so before the rest of my family on Sunday mornings to make a large breakfast of animal protein, gluten-rich carbohydrates, and clarified caffeine products in order to fuel the morning service. As a spiritual discipline, I take advantage of the solitude to carefully attend to appropriately edifying music. In addition to listening to John Coltrane's A Love Supreme a hundred times or so, I like to work through Johnny Cash's American Recordings. A highlight, of course, is "The Man Comes Around." Given that we repeatedly hear how Americans are turned off by Christianity's claims to exclusive truth, the broad appeal of a song about the impending divine wrath is a bit surprising. It's not just evangelicals who love this song; in fact, I get the impression the majority of its fans have never darkened a sanctuary door.

I think two factors explain its appeal. For one, no one is actually interested in moderation or vague, life-affirming sentiments. People want truth and clarity, both of which must, by definition, be direct and hard-edged. Our Lord's return in glory and judgment must terrify because it is true. When it comes to the divine, most people prefer the clarity of terror to the uselessness of generic affirmation.

The second factor, quite simply, is the King James Version. Johnny Cash thoroughly absorbed its vocabulary and, more importantly, its cadences, and here produced his own impressionistic rendering of John's Apocalypse. Listening to "The Man Comes Around," one is never entirely sure how each word or phrase is to be understood, but the cumulative imagery is quite plain, and undeniably grand. There's nothing quaint or humorous about 

It's hard for thee to kick against the prick.
In measured hundredweight and penny pound,
When the man comes around.

In context, those words hit just about as hard as

Whoever is unjust let him be unjust still.
Whoever is righteous let him be righteous still.
Whoever is filthy let him be filthy still.
Listen to the words long written down,
When the man comes around.

Just, righteous, or filthy, nothing quite sounds as much like the Bible as the good old KJV, and nothing terrifies or comforts so much as the clear truth our Lord Jesus Christ shall come again to judge the quick and the dead.

Throwaway kids

A while back, I met with the local Teach for America alumni coordinator, who asked whether I still believe in the organization's mission statement: "One day, all children will have an equal opportunity for a quality education." I explained I believe the obstacles to that vision are primarily in the breakdown of the family, not in the administration of public education systems. Nat Hentoff reports on some of the practical consequences of that breakdown in "Keeping Low-income Students from Being Throwaway Kids." While debates about education, particularly in Christian circles, revolve around ideology, we do well to remember a child's educational success has much more to do with home environment than the teacher's party membership.

Getting back to that TFA-oriented conversation, I went on to explain my belief that families can be solid only when their foundation is the Church. Being an atheist, Nat Hentoff doesn't reach a similar conclusion. Nonetheless, Christians do well to remember our society will be well-ordered only when the Church returns to its center.