For those who didn’t get a chance to read the comments to my prior post, I invite you to at this time. Two comments in particular were very interesting. One reader commented upon finding a Catholic Worker House and learning how to change society from below and not just on top. Another reader reprinted a letter to America magazine from the Archdiocese of Detroit commenting upon some Catholics attempting to use the voter’s guide produced by Catholic Answers in opposition to the local Archdiocese. As a caveat I should mention that in no way is it implied that this action was endorsed by Catholic Answers. I will also add that Catholic Answers, in my understanding, tries to support the bishops, and they probably wouldn’t endorse the actions taken by some pro-life activists. I personally do not support their voting guide, but there are bishops who do, and I believe Catholic Answers is being sincere in trying to advise Catholics in how to vote with Catholic principles.
I bring this up because it illustrates quite well how the conservative movement has alienated itself from society. In the instance above, people saw themselves as apart from the Church and needing to guide it back into orthodoxy. I should mention as well that there is a certain oddity in conservatives feeling in the minority when they have controlled the federal government for the better part of 6 years. I don’t think such a sentiment is incorrect however.
This traces itself in large part to the early 80s. This was a time when conservatives were considering two paths. They perceived that many institutions from higher education to the media to local and state governments were liberal. Confronting this, conservatives openly debated whether they should try to reform these institutions or create parallel institutions. In the end, the conservative movement opted to create parallel institutions. Three examples of this would be Christendom College, Franciscan University of Steubenville and Ave Maria to counter such places as Georgetown, Marquette, and Notre Dame. In the press we have the National Catholic Register and secularly the Washington Times and New York Post to counter the National Catholic Reporter, Washington Post, and New York Times. (Some of these were radical reformations rather than initiations.)
On the local level, conservatives were encouraged to flee the immorality of the cities. City councils in places such as Washington, D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco became a cruel joke of liberalism as conservatives fled to the suburbs. As we move into the 90s, we witness the rise of red state/blue state political analysis. Such analysis brings insights like if we take out the 50 largest metropolitan areas, we are a very conservative country. Incidentally, this removes half the nation’s population. In essence the argument amounts to “if you remove half of the population that disagrees with us, you’ll see we have quite a bit of agreement.” This also ignores that the conservatism of Ohio is vastly different from the conservatism of Montana and vastly different from the conservatism of Alabama. Similarly, the liberalism of Minnesota, Hawaii, and California are radically different.
This experiment has failed miserably. In retrospect we can recognize the silliness in believing a counter-Chicago and a counter-California could be created. Franciscan University for all its virtues isn’t a Notre Dame. The comparison has as much relevance as the rivalry between MIT and the Lake Wobegon School of Technology, which in a word is none. In the history of the world there are no examples of two cultures coexisting in the same place persisting in lasting peace. One culture eventually overwhelms the other. Conservatism is the culture that is being overwhelmed.
This is to a significant degree a source of my apathy. I hear many conservatives complain about the Church. One of the biggest complaints is about Fr. Richard McBrien. I have no love affair for the man, but even his critics will concede that the biggest reason that the media asks him for quotes is that he bothers responding. I’ve heard that many people that email him receive a really quick and friendly reply. There is a lesson. Half the game is showing up, and too many conservatives have alienated themselves to the point where nobody knows or cares that they have an opinion. Say you know nothing about Catholicism. Who are you going to look up, Fr Richard McBrien from Notre Dame or Dr. Conservative from Franciscan University? Some may object that they should choose both out of fairness. No offense to Franciscan University, but they aren’t exactly animating the theological debates of the Church in America. Yes, they have a following, but it should be inherently obvious that we aren’t having an apples to apples comparison.
In many respects politics today has the feel of a divorced parent complaining about how the other parent is raising the kids. Complaining isn’t going to do any good. Ideas aren’t going to win the day. Why should the parent who’s actually raising the children take to heart what the other parent thinks is good parenting? Of course the parent raising the child should keep the best interests of the child in mind. That parent is going to have some difficulty however implementing the divorced parent’s plans when the divorced parent views the best interests of the child as the abandonment and destruction of the other parent. There is a certain hypocrisy about the whole matter. And there is a certain hypocrisy to the conservative movement bemoaning what is becoming of our culture when they have abandoned it. Needless to say citizens of the cities are a little apprehensive about conservative plans when conservatives often describe such encounters as going into the belly of the beast.
Our political debate is largely pointless at this point. Political debate only makes sense in the context of a culture. We live in a country where the man from Naperville, IL, thinks he has more in common with a man from Westchester, CT, than a man on the south side of Chicago. We live in a culture that has convinced itself that the other half is mired in immorality despite the fact you can’t drive more than 30 miles on a Texas freeway without encountering a porn hut. We have eviscerated the notion of solidarity with the working man; people will moan endlessly about the illegal immigrant taking a job, but those same people will stand in line to receive the latest good made in China. If we want to change the culture, the lessons of subsidiarity are important. We need to make our families wholesome. We need to be engaged with the local church and the local community, and we must engage ourselves in trying to make them better. Having done this, the broader culture will begin to change. If you are looking to the Supreme Court, the President, or the Congress to make this a more just world, you are looking in the wrong place. If you are looking to the Pope or even really the bishop to end the silliness occurring at some masses, you are looking in the wrong place. Yes, life is easier when the above are all on board. It doesn’t change the fact that we often get the community, culture, parish, and church we deserve.
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