Scruton on Evangelical Atheism

I had long since been meaning to blog something or other about the recent spate of proselytizing atheist tracts published over the last year or so…best-sellers by the likes of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens.  But fortunately for you, Roger Scruton got there first, making every point I had to make and several more besides.  Scruton’s essay is, typically for him, elegant, measured, and witty–and devastating to his opponents.  If at first it reads as though he’s making a Jungian “religion-as-universal-myth” argument, don’t be put off.  He’s actually using Rene Girard to move, subtly, towards a “Christianity-as-true-myth” position, as in C.S. Lewis.  Good stuff.

[Note to self: write at least one post this week without referencing Lewis.  It's getting to be a tic.]

I like English Breakfast…I love Lapsang Souchong

What Incarnatus writes below is well said, and far be it from me to underestimate the disgust that long-term contact with the machinery of government can create in even the sweetest of souls…. But wouldn’t the problem be the same with any bureaucracy anywhere? Isn’t the issue really one of human nature and human corruption? I think the search for a “sane” government (in the sense he means) short of the New Jerusalem is a Romanticism, rather like the Romantic desire for King Arthur’s return (C.S. Lewis in one of the Narnia books: “And I say, the sooner the better!”), but more tantalizingly achievable in theory.

And though Gen. Lee was a great soldier and a great man, he was no prophet in this case. I think that our vast republic–vaster now!–is, though far from perfect, neither “aggressive abroad” nor “despotic at home.” At home we enjoy more liberty than is good for our souls, most likely…and on the world stage, our economy has been the greatest engine of prosperity and our military the greatest guarantor of peace and stability of the past 100 years–for everyone else in the world! Our current state of heightened conflict notwithstanding (or perhaps I should say: “included.”) So I’m sorry, but I have to give at least 2 1/2 cheers for our “regime” as it is…

As a peace offering, however, let me state that if King Arthur does return soon I’d be happy to have him take over. I would also accept Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Louis IX of France (as Sec’y of State), and Queen Elizabeth I (as long as she’d reopen the monasteries her dad closed). So I do have a little flexibility on this monarchy thing.

Sipping Tea with Her Majesty and Robert E. Lee

…though only in spirit. To respond to my right honorable friend regarding my monarchist proclivities I can only say that I am involved in no active plot to return this fair land to rule by the Crown as much as I might be actively praying for regime change. But I am at the moment sipping a cup of English Breakfast and were a bit of tax on this cup to return the rule of our fair land to some semblance of sanity I would gladly offer it up.

In all seriousness though, I have worked for the government for the better part of the last decade and even on the state and local level I am thoroughly convinced that something is amiss. Were I to have had my head in the ground the entire time and not have seen the events on the world stage brought about by our ruling class I would, as a result of what I have seen on the state and local level, still be advocating for an alternative.  And so I submit the following from Robert E. Lee via the Axegrinder and Rublev’s Dog:

“The consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all that have preceded it.”

Outside the Church????

I have fielded questions from some in our parish and from other friends and acquaintances who know of my warm feelings towards Rome regarding the Pope’s recent comments about those Christians not in full communion with the Holy See. These questions have uniformly echoed a dismay at the tenor of the Pope’s teaching. Well, good for the Pope and I believe that the Russians have said it best…. from the Pertinacious Papist.

The Pope’s teachings are…well…Catholic and let’s hope and pray that one day soon he will have no need to speak of such things.

Winning the War

A good example from Scotland on the west’s tolerance for homosexuality and its intolerance for traditional Christian belief…from Out of Ergyng via A Conservative Blog for Peace. Gene Robinson may have lost a battle but it would appear that he is winning the war (or at least he’s winning a war for the hearts and minds of our leaders, we in fact know who wins the big war!)

Gene Robinson, Spreading Concord at Home and Abroad

The Bishop of New Hampshire breaks the news to a British journalist: the C of E is thoroughly pro-gay, but they just won’t admit it in public.  Note the interesting distinction the blogger draws between the behavior of homosexual RC clergy and the Anglican cohort.  Hat tip: the Anchoress.

Some further thoughts on the last two posts

As this site’s resident Neocon, I want to take this opportunity to announce to the world that the very instant I discover that Incarnatus is involved in some sort of monarchist conspiracy to return us to the control of those German squatters currently holed up in Buckingham Palace, I’ll rat him out to the FBI sooner than you can say “Patrick Henry.”   No one’s going to tax MY tea and get away with it.  You’re on notice, paleo-boy.

More thoughts on Monarchy and Liberty…

…from the Monarchist.

Some thoughts on Monarchy…

…from another Young Fogey. Mr. Heydel-Mankoo cites some comments by a former female US Secretary of State. Those comments disappoint but do not surprise those citizens of the United States among us (and especially those residents of the former Confederate States among us) who have much sympathy for monarchy.

Some reasons I fear communion with…

the bishop of Rome - from the Pertinacious Papist. Not that that fear might prevent me but it exists none the less.