Today’s “On the Square” article from First Things is an interesting exploration of the decline of conservative social values, even as conservative economic values continue to rise. Far be it for me to speak for Gilmour and Grubbs, but I think it’s safe to say that all three of us have more sympathy for the socially conservative than the economically conservative. I certainly do.
I’d say I’m more an intellectual/traditionalist conservative than a right-wing/Capitalist conservative, but I think your distinction and mine aren’t far away from one another.
I wonder more and more how long the social conservatives, more specifically those of evangelical and fundamentalist churches, will allow themselves to be used by the conservative elite.
The bait the elite use is an “anti-socialist stand”, a belief in a strong military, and an even stronger belief in capital punishment. These three stances strangely enough lure conservative Christians right out of their favorite slogan-ized philosophy, “What would Jesus do?”. If you ask them “What would Jesus do” regarding the positions mentioned above, they easily, with no compunction, slide right out of their religion into pure politics…exactly where the elite wish to take them.
Agreed, John. I guess I can see how Christianity got mixed up with the free market (even though I don’t like it), but the fact that it’s attached to military hawkism and the death penalty is immensely disturbing to me.