I’ve decided to publish on a Wednesday, at least for this week…
I've been thinking a lot about conservatism. Where it's going. Where it's been... Whether or not it's really conserving anything at all. I'm looking into the history of conservatism as an idea in order to understand how we've come so far, which has lead me to Yoram Hazony's book Conservatism: A Rediscovery. His conclusion makes the case for living a conservative life and being a conservative person. Consider this:
Whenever we hear a conservative speaking warmly about the conservation of our national, religious, and moral inheritance, it is reasonable for those within earshot to ask what this particular person has done for the actual conservation of national and religious tradition where this is entirely within his power-which is to say, in his private life. Has he taken the necessary steps to construct a conservative life for himself and his posterity? Or is he yet another sorry example of the general dereliction that we face? Consider the custom of setting aside a sabbath day on which to go to church or to synagogue, participate in festive communal meals, and rest from the labors of the week. I often speak to young men and women who say they are excited about "conservatism." Yet when the sabbath comes around, they have not the slightest intention of keeping the sabbath as their ancestors did for two or three thousand years, but happily tell me that they are headed for the mountains or the beach, or staying home "to finish up something for work." (emphasis mine)
So, what does it mean to "construct a conservative life for myself and my posterity?" I don't want to be another sorry example for the general dereliction we face. There are so many aspects of living a conservative life we've rejected that it's hard to pinpoint any single issue. We've rejected these practices in our own hearts and minds, in our families, and in our churches. It should therefore come as no surprise that we have rejected a conservative life as a nation. In reflective fashion, I'd like to share one example of this in my own life.
To-Do or To-Cut
As I was thinking on my goals for this year, I came across a novel idea in *Discipleship and Dominion*. Read that here. Rather than creating a to-do list, create a "To-Cut List.” The idea is to think about things you must eliminate from your life in order to achieve your goals before you add more. Among other things, I chose to cut, or at least severely limit, news/commentary podcasts. In exchange, I tried listening to a few more sermon podcasts than usual.
In the middle of the revival at Asbury, I listened to a sermon by Robby Gallaty in which he recounted the revival his church experienced the year before. He believes that revival never would have taken place at Longhollow without first taking place in his own life, and he only experienced this personally when he committed to a time of stillness and silence before the Lord. No requests, no talking, just sitting in the presence of God to listen.
As he recounted the story, I thought about how little I had done this, and I wondered what would happen if I tried. How would I know that all my racing thoughts were truly of the Holy Spirit and not just connected to the podcast I recently finished or something I read online? I resonated with Robby's experience in that I knew it was going to take a long time to detox my mind of the noise in order to begin recognizing the accent of the Holy Spirit. I came to the realization that I caused this problem and had no one else to blame.
Asking the Lord for Wisdom & Chasing a Kingdom of Noise
I don't remember how young I was when I read that the Lord told King Solomon he would give him whatever he wanted, he need only ask. Solomon's request for wisdom and understanding has remained with me ever since (1 Kings 3:5-12). At some point late in high school, I began to pray the same prayer. I wanted (and still want) more than almost anything to have wisdom and understanding about why things are the way they are. Perhaps my love for books is an answer to this prayer, but there's only so much time a man can read.
I began seeking out this wisdom in other media like newsletters, blogs, and YouTube, but mainly through podcasts. The beauty of podcasts is that they aren't limited by space; you can listen to a podcast and learn something while doing just about anything, so that's what I did. I found a waterproof speaker so I didn't have to “waste” time in the shower not learning. I listened to this episode while eating breakfast. That episode while driving to work. This interview of so and so while waiting for these videos to upload. This one while at the gym. That one while cutting the grass. You get the point... Every spare moment of silence was devoted to learning something new and eliminating simple boredom.
Getting wisdom is a noble task. Solomon said so in Proverbs. But the way I went about it was too much. I set out to find wisdom and instead acquired a Kingdom of Noise. Consider this lengthy thought from C.S. Lewis' masterpiece, The Screwtape Letters, written by a demon to his apprentice:
Music and silence—how I detest them both! How thankful we should be that ever since Our Father entered Hell—though no longer ago than humans, reckoning in light years, could express—no square inch of infernal space and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable forces, but all has been occupied by Noise—Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile—Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples and impossible desires. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. We have already made great strides in this direction as regards the Earth. The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end. But I admit we are not yet loud enough, or anything like it. Research is in progress.
The Way of Jesus and a Conservative Life
Similar to Neil Postman's argument about our obsession with conquering space, John Mark Comer argues in his book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry that we have an obsession with transgressing our own limitations. This leads us to a habit, a way of life, in which we are constantly chasing more. More food. More knowledge. More money. More possessions. More work than we can handle. More production. More growth. More efficiency. More change. More happiness. More, More, More. By doing this, we eliminate any chance at living a life of margin and any chance at constructing a conservative life. Take note of the subject of this essay. It is of course conservatism, but I haven't said the first thing about the Republican Party. Why? Because it is my contention that political conservatism is simply downstream of familial conservatism and community conservatism. It is no wonder we do not see this on a national level, because we don't often see it on these first and more important levels either.
By contrast, Comer argues that we should seek to follow the way of Jesus. When you read the Gospels, you discover that Jesus kept a packed schedule throughout his earthly ministry. Yet somehow, He never came across as "busy." Why? Because He understood the importance of injecting a healthy dose of margin into his life. If we are to become disciples of Jesus, one of our key tasks in a culture addicted to more is to realize that we are NOT Jesus and we DO have limitations. We simply cannot do it all, and this should be good news.
Returning to my example of a Kingdom of Noise, I'll share this thought from Andrew Sullivan, which Comer quotes in his book:
Modernity slowly weakened spirituality, by design and accident, in favor of commerce; it downplayed silence and mere being in favor of noise and constant action. The reason we live in a culture increasingly without faith is not because science has somehow disproved the unprovable, but because the white noise of secularism has removed the very stillness in which it might endure or be reborn…
The Blood Clot to Conservatism: Me
In the sermon I mentioned, Robby Gallaty used a phrase regarding revival that I will recycle here regarding conservatism.
"Perhaps I am the blood clot to conservatism."
Perhaps it is me and my family that are bringing this thing down, or at least preventing it from spreading.
A Kingdom of Noise is barely a drop in the ocean concerning ways I haven't always lived a conservative life, a life without margin, or a life in pursuit of more. Have I been conservative with my money? Have I been conservative with my time? Have I been conservative with the talents God's entrusted to me? Have I been conservative in how I treat my body and take care of myself? I think even now of goals my wife and I have for our marriage and our family. Are we not able to accomplish them simply because we aren't sufficiently committed to the ruthless elimination of more and constructing a conservative life for ourselves and for our posterity, all so we can keep up with what our More-Obsessed culture demands we have?
Maybe it's time we all start looking in the mirror before we claim how conservative we are.
Book Links
I highly recommend reading each book I mentioned in this essay. If you wanna pick up one of them while supporting local bookstores (and this Substack), just follow the links below. Thanks for reading!