The fight for the soul of conservatism

David Brooks, New York Times Op-Ed Columnist and moderate conservative, writes in his column today of the coming fight for the soul of conservatism. While he does an excellent job of elucidating the grounds for the coming fight and the history of the traditionalist/reformist split in the Republican Party, his conclusion of ultimate reformist dominance, reassuring though it may be, is fundamentally flawed. Though he is correct in pointing towards a traditionalist victory in the short term, he is so only accidentally in that he has stumbled upon the ephemera of a large point - that is that the traditional wing of the Republican Party will end up triumphant in both the short term and the long term because it is only the traditional wing that holds onto a coherent view of humanity and its government.
In so far as we are to take the examples Mr. Brooks offers for a moderate conservative position, problems like inequality and middle-class anxiety, he fails to see that seeing such social phenomenon as problems to be addressed by collective action is precisely the folly that conservatism exists to fight against. In so far as conservatism, especially the conservatism of the young movement conservatives, actually means something, it stand squarely as a rejection of the idea that the ills and anxieties of a juvenile populace can be exorcised by the Holy Water of government and an enthronement of individual rights and responsibilities in the face such problems. We stand, in short, with adulthood that will accept neither wails of victimization nor the comfortable buzz of a cocktail reception with its fetid insinuation that our collective sophistication will be the end of all our problems. 'Reformists' conservatives, in so far as they wish to hand to the federal government a greater scope for the micromanagement of our lives and property are not actually believing in anything essentially conservative - their reform is not essentially a reform at all. It is essential equivalent to modernizing an airplane by stripping it of its wings and engines and thus declaring it perfectly safe - perfectly safe to go no where.
This isn't to say that conservatism doesn't have its problems, and in singling out the pervasive anti-intellectualism endemic to much of our movement Mr. Brooks is quite right. But we should not allow the very fatuity we currently suffer from to be replaced by the greater follies Mr. Brooks seems to be arguing for. It would be far worse for us, and for our nation we purport to serve, if we replaced our sometimes habitual anti-intellectual impulse with the ersatz-intellectual sophistication that our moderates and their liberal friends would like to offer us.

Misplacing our faith in politics.

This is an opinion essay I wrote which will appear in the Fall Quarter Edition of The Fish - the Christian magazine of InterVarsity at The University of Chicago.

Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him in what He said. And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any. “Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? “Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax.” And they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” And hearing this, they were amazed, and leaving Him, they went away.

Matthew 22:15-22 (NASB)

Caught in a trap of our own devising, we Christians still struggle with the need to balance the competing demands of God and government. Although the question no longer concerns poll-taxes, the American Church finds itself increasingly embroiled in political life. From Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition – whose evangelical foot soldiers have become the dominant political force in large swaths of the country – to emerging Christian initiatives to use the government to fight poverty or combat climate change, Christianity in the United States has political consequences. What Christianity means to our vote on social and economic policy, not to mention in the world of foreign affairs, has become the subject of pundits and pastors whose individual brilliance is rivaled only by the multitude of their opinions. But beyond the political implications of Christianity, it remains necessary for Christians to recognize the limitations of politics and the supremacy of God’s claim on our lives.

Modern Christianity lies in danger of sacrificing our hopes and our energy in the service of politics. Watching as the secular world turns politics into its religion, Christians begin to fall into the temptation of finding salvation not in Christ but in a politician or a political party. In too many cities and churches, Christians place their faith in John McCain or Barack Obama for ‘our nation’s salvation’ and waste their evangelical energy in the pursuit of votes. Increasingly, our hearts (and wallets) move not to aid the work of salvation but instead to aid the work of television advertising. We forget to give our love God and our fellow man, and instead offer it to fallible politicians in the service of issues we all to often regard as sacred crusades.

A telling example of this phenomenon is found in Westboro Baptist Church. Famed for their belief that ‘God hates Fags’, Westboro shows the consequences of allowing political beliefs to take precedence over our Christianity. Allowing disapproval of homosexuality to overwhelm all other aspects of Christianity, most notably the doctrine of redemption, Westboro has lost any semblance of real faith in their attempt to turn homosexuality into a capital crime. Westboro, in loosing themselves to the politics of the world, has found a place in hell for themselves equal (or worse) to any that they have condemned.

Fundamentally, we lose the carefully cultivated balance between God and the world when we allow our hopes for the world and our drive for its betterment to be satisfied in the fires of politics. We must remember the fallen condition of man and the folly, so expertly demonstrated by history, of trusting in the strength of humanity for our salvation. When we get caught up in the calculus of the ballot box or of the Electoral College, we forget that in the end it is the souls of human beings that are truly important – and that ultimately the only way to help them is through Christ. That our faith, our hope, and our love are the things that make us human in God’s image and deserve to be given only to God.

Christian interaction with politics requires striking a proper balance between the legitimate claims of our Nation, the prudent demands of public policy, and the moral promptings of our faith. But in that balancing, it cannot be forgotten that we must render unto to Christ the preeminent role as the liberator and redeemer of mankind and our ultimate and only hope for true change. For in the end Christ will look at us and ask “Whose likeness and inscription are you?”