Peter Hitchens, who in my estimation is one of the best paleoconservative political writers on the scene (as judged by both the content of what he writes and the élan with which he writes it), is a convert from atheism and Trotskyism to a very traditional style of Anglicanism. One of the things that drives me around the bend about so many purportedly conservative Christians, including a goodly number of Anglican bishops and priests, is that when one assesses what they say about political and cultural matters, they are spouting views that would have been thought of as reckless radicalism by previous generations of Anglican thinkers. This statement from a recent article about Hitchens caused me to break forth in a few "Huzzahs!":
A conservative position flows directly and inevitably from a theist position. I'm not saying you can't be a conservative without being a theist - it seems much more difficult, I'm not certain I can work out why you would want to be.
But here's the rub: if you want to know what Hitchens means by "conservatism", read his articles. He is no friend either of neoconservatism, multiculturalism, or any of the "isms" deemed within the pale of conservative theological and political thought by multitudes of Neo-Anglicans. What's more, if all the generations of Anglicans up to the time of, say, C.S. Lewis could be brought back from the dead to opine on Mr. Hitchens, I'm confident that they would see in him someone who really understands the cultural and political ramifications of traditional Anglican faith, unlike so many of our Neo-Anglicans and a few deluded trad Anglicans.
It would be one thing if this debate were simply an abstract one that is largely unrelated, or not related at all, to our existential condition here in the West, but it is not. It is now, literally, a life-or-death sort of debate, with reference to both our collective and individual existence, and it is now beyond the ability of conventional politics to fix it. A growing chorus of notable voices is warning that civil war may be at hand, and our bishops need to recover the steely traditionalist conservative Anglican resolve to admit that this is so, and consequently to both radically alter their narrative and to prepare the flock for the task ahead. The task will involve the proclamation of the Gospel, yes, but it will equally entail a call to steel for a fight.
"Ideas have consequences" said the famed traditionalist philosopher Richard Weaver. Too many people both on the right and the left seem oblivious to the potential or real consequences of their "ideas", theologies or worldviews. Modern Anglicans haven't escaped that malady, but the day is coming, and now is, when Anglicans will need to fully come to grips with the traditionalist implications of the old English faith.
