A Case for Action: Ecclesiastical Conservatism

There is an entirely new society of social and economic conservatives. In the broad conservative world, young voices like Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, Dan Crenshaw and others have functioned as persuasive encyclopedias for the movement and are bringing in a host of new young voices into conservatism. And though I want more than they want, at least we know that these wish to preserve the vestiges of truth in our culture and breathe the Judeo-Christian air. They want freedom of speech which includes the right to make fun of Allysa Milano’s theatrics.

Now, where do we go from here? Let me begin by where we should not go.

We should not go to Kamala-land no matter how affordable her health plan is. We should not go to Grandpa Joe’s new transition plan for the country. I can guarantee you that the only thing he wants to heal is your stupid brain, conservatives! Conservative, heal thyself with some Biden therapy.

Recent speeches from Biden appealing for unity are shameful. A man who is eager to lock down the country again over COVID, whose party is zealous to elevate LGBTQ values into society, who has committed themselves to a campaign against the rights of the unborn, and who affirms that the West needs to be torn down and make way for a new liberalized pluralism where everyone can speak, except those who embrace those Western values of biblical marriage and the objectivity of truth; there is no conceivable universe where a Christian individual shaped by the values of the Western tradition of Augustine, Luther and Calvin can join forces with the Left. Unless, of course, they are also eager to woke their way into the movement and creep into our churches to disorient us from our cherished values.

We had a couple visit our church recently from Texas. They moved there and were excited to find a healthy congregation. After visiting three conservative Presbyterian churches and one conservative independent church, they discovered that the main chorus of these congregations are the ethics of BLM and the moral skepticism of REVOICE. Combine those two forces and you have yourself a congregation that is ready to embrace James Cone over Augustine.

I have spoken about trajectories before, and I have said with the conviction of a crying new-born who is fully certain that he wants food and whose parents at 2am are not skeptical at all of his claims, that the voices leading you ecclesiastically are the voices that will take you either towards Augustine or towards those leading opinions who wish to abolish the West in exchange for an equitable society. And by “equitable” secularism means necessarily that everyone deserves honor unless he/she defends the exclusive claims of King Jesus.

We know where not to go, but where do we go? I would like to argue tomorrow for an “ecclesiastical conservatism.” The phrase doesn’t come easily off our tongues, but again, we are now in a phase of history where we need big words and big actions to crush silly ideologies. I will develop this soon, but the gist of it is that we need to re-unite our Western ethics with the ecclesiology that gave secular leaders high blood pressure and Queen Elizabeth nightmares anytime she would put the words John+Knox together.

I am not asking you to join in exchange for an Arturo Fuente, but I am asking you to consider it personally whether you are here in Pensacola or the suburb of Austin, TX: Consider whether it’s time to take some serious action as an individual, family member and churchman. Consider whether you have tolerated too much of that thing you thought innocuous, but now it’s stuck in your throat giving you little breathing room. Consider whether it’s time to change the scenery. There is always time to re-think things and change, but you must make room to consider the other thing first.