Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 6:53am

Not Yet Begun to Fight

 

Bravo to David French at National Review Online who states eloquently my position:

I must admit, my first response to the notion of “strategic withdrawal” is less intellectual and more visceral. Retreat? I recall John Paul Jones’s words, “I have not yet begun to fight,” or, more succinctly, General Anthony McAuliffe’s legendary response to German surrender demands at Bastogne: “Nuts!” In reality, Christian conservatives have barely begun to fight. Christians, following the examples of the Apostles, should never retreat from the public square. They must leave only when quite literally forced out, after expending every legal bullet, availing themselves of every right of protest, and after exhausting themselves in civil disobedience. Have cultural conservatives spent half the energy on defense that the Left has spent on the attack?
 After all, the theological base is still strong. As I’ve pointed out before, not one orthodox Christian denomination is even contemplating shifting its stance on sexual-revolution issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, and the traditionalist faiths are holding the line in membership or growing. By contrast, the mainline, progressive churches are collapsing in membership, continuing a long slide that could see some of America’s historic denominations essentially vanish in our lifetimes. The grassroots of social conservatism are not just strong but increasing in strength. The cultural Left has lost one high-profile cultural clash after another. From the Chick-fil-A “boycott,” to Hobby Lobby’s legal and cultural triumph, to the recent windfall and triumphant reopening of Memories Pizza, when the cultural Right actually bothers to mobilize, the cultural Left tends to lose. And while pop culture produces prodigious quantities of leftist propaganda, the surprising box office of God’s Not Dead, the overwhelming success of American Sniper, celebrating the life of a Christian warrior, and the consistent ratings for Bible-themed television demonstrate that there remains a large-scale appetite for works of art that advance, whether by intention or by effect, a substantially more conservative point of view.

Crucially, the Left is engaged in a furious internal debate over the very same hysterical tactics that are driving some conservatives to despair. Not every leftist wants to live in a culture where dissent is crushed, dissenters are driven out of jobs, and free speech is redefined as the freedom to shout down your opponents. It is not time to retreat when even key members of the cultural opposition — people who will never agree with conservatives on core social issues — agree their side has gone too far.Go here to read the rest.  If more conservatives fought, and fewer conservatives wallowed in gloom and despair, our country and world would be a far better place.  In this Vale of Tears we are God’s instruments, and I doubt that He wants us to simply run and give up the fight.  Saint Francis of Assisi used to say, “Let gloom and despair be among the Devil and his disciples.”

Ever remember these words of Lincoln at the end of his Cooper Union address:
Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address

Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT.

 

 

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Paul W Primavera
Friday, April 24, AD 2015 10:22am

Let us imitate in our zeal the Maccabean brothers who stood fast together against evil similar to what we may yet face!

Philip
Philip
Friday, April 24, AD 2015 10:37am

Great advice Mr. McClarey.
Only one chance to engage the enemy while we can breathe. Once we are called away from this Church Militant our Earth confrontations are most likely over.
Fight while you can.

chris c.
chris c.
Friday, April 24, AD 2015 2:11pm

The Dreher point of view need not be interpreted as a refusal to fight the so-called “culture wars.” Instead it could be viewed as a call to fight the fight on better ground. Right now the “debate” if you can call it that, is totally framed by the language and values of the secular, radical left. By the power of the institutions which they control; media, education, entertainment, and increasingly, major corporations, they totally determine the agenda and what questions should or shouldn’t be asked.

Adoption of the “Benedict option” could prepare Christians for the true spiritual battle that is coming, rather than wasting time, trying to win minor skirmishes here and there. It could also prompt Christians to focus our attention where it should be, on Christ our Lord, rather than responding to the latest of the never ending outrages of the secular radicals.

Shawn Marshall
Shawn Marshall
Friday, April 24, AD 2015 2:39pm

how do we stand against a goof ball pope doing the global warming putsch? Who in our Church will listen?

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