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March 25, 2005

Sullivan at it Again

Saw this on Ace. Seems Andrew Sullivan is quite upset (again) with religious conservatives:

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I'm quite astonished to hear people who call themselves conservatives arguing, in effect, that Congress and the federal courts have a free-ranging charter to correct any injustice, anywhere, regardless of the Constitution. And yet my email runneth over with just those kinds of comments. And arguing that "it's okay because liberals do it too" doesn't undercut my point that conservatives are acting like liberals here. It makes it." - Glenn Reynolds, coming to terms with what the religious right is doing to conservative principles. The important point is that religious zealotry cannot be incorporated into conservatism. It is the nemesis of conservatism. And it has to be purged in order for conservatism to be revived.

Well, then, I guess we'd better get with the pogrom, er, program, huh?

Remember, it's Sullivan who thinks it's a conservative principle for the courts to overrule popular opinion and actual voters when it comes to gay marriage.

Sullivan is wrong here for oh so many reasons, but the most obvious fault is his belief that "religious zealotry" is the "nemesis of conservatism." One does not need to be religious in order to be conservative. But both share a respect for what came before and value tradition over the new and shiny. This doesn't mean religious people are resistant to the idea of change (well, not all of us). After all, very few of us still say our prayers in Latin. The beauty of religious belief is that it retains fundamental truths while adapting its ways of celebrating and communicating those truths to the society around it.

Conservatism is the same way. As G.K. Chesterton, one of those 'religious zealots,' once said "He is a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of a conservative." Christianity is a similar rebellion - we're in the world, but not of it.

Sullivan's ridiculous statements remind me of another Chesterton quote - "Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it." He said that in 1937. I guess Sullivan misses those good old days.

I haven't actually read Sully's site lately, but if this is any indication of his writing of late, then I haven't missed much.

Posted by slublog at March 25, 2005 05:10 PM

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