As the spring months are upon us it may be hard or even unpleasant to think about winter. However, it seems to me that we might be in a political Valley Forge. Let your mind go back to that fateful story:
“Washington in 1777 took up his winter quarters at Valley Forge, to the north of Philadelphia. At the end of every campaign there were many desertions, and he was now reduced to about nine thousand men, of whom another third were to melt away by spring. Short of clothing and shelter, they shivered and grumbled through the winter months, while in Philadelphia, a score of miles away, nearly twenty thousand well-equipped English troops were quartered in comfort. The social season was at its height, and the numerous Loyalists in the capital made the stay of Gen. Howe and his officers pleasing and cheerful.” (This is according to Sir Winston Churchill The Age of Revolution page 200)
The progressives are like the English in Philadelphia well quartered and enjoying society while we conservatives are quartered in Valley Forge for the winter. The British really did not take serious the American Continental Army. Nor did they think that Gen. Washington was an equal as a military commander. The modern liberals do not really take serious the conservative movement. In their mind the principles of conservatives are out-dated and ineffective. The basic presuppositions of progressive liberals mitigate against taking conservatives seriously. That is why many have said, “to be a conservative is to be a dying breed.”
Before the election of Barack Obama the saying that "the conservative movement was dead in America" became popular.
“I hereby officially pronounce the conservative movement dead. May it rest in peace. It was killed by its faith in men, not principles – men like George W. Bush. The appointments of John Roberts as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and Harriet Miers as associate justice serve as the epitaphs for the political movement. But even before these betrayals, conservatism was on life support. It could not have survived the irresponsible spending by the Republican Congress, approved by the president during the last five years.” http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46646
Author Joseph Farah gives us keen insight into the problem within the conservative movement. We should acknowledge that many conservatives lost sight of core principles and trusted men. But there is renewed strength coming from people who hold to the basic beliefs of the conservative movement and these people are making their voices heard. The strength of Valley Forge was not Washington’s brilliant military tactics, he had not won a battle yet! Nor was it his strength of character. It was the principles he was fighting for that kept him and his men from surrendering.
The strength of what is known as the conservative movement has always been the basic belief in a set of principles that should guide all who serve in civil government.
A basic guide to conservative principles are outlined by Russell Kirk: http://http://www.kirkcenter.org/kirk/ten-principles.html
Even though Prof. Kirk does a good job in explaining modern conservatism and he is worth the time to read, conservatism has a deeper root that flows out of the Protestant Reformation. Economist Max Weber points this out in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. However, as the true church is in decline, so is the ethic of work. The open door for progressives is the declining church in society not a superior set of ideas. In fact, the basic tenant of progressivism is of man’s perfectibility. This is a lie and The Fundamental flaw they never recover from.
Kirk states “conservatives are chastened by their principle of imperfectability. Human nature suffers irremediably from certain grave faults, the conservatives know. Man being imperfect, no perfect social order ever can be created. Because of human restlessness, mankind would grow rebellious under any utopian domination, and would break out once more in violent discontent—or else expire of boredom. To seek for utopia is to end in disaster, the conservative says: we are not made for perfect things. All that we reasonably can expect is a tolerably ordered, just, and free society, in which some evils, maladjustments, and suffering will continue to lurk. By proper attention to prudent reform, we may preserve and improve this tolerable order. But if the old institutional and moral safeguards of a nation are neglected, then the anarchic impulse in humankind breaks loose: “the ceremony of innocence is drowned.” The ideologues who promise the perfection of man and society have converted a great part of the twentieth-century world into a terrestrial hell.”
We agree with Prof. Kirk but as you know he is just giving creed to the Protestant doctrine of total depravity.
"Total Depravity: Although fallen persons are capable of externally good acts (acts that are good for society), they cannot do anything really good, i.e., pleasing to God (Rom. 8:8). God, however, looks on the heart. And from his ultimate standpoint, fallen man has no goodness, in thought, word, or deed. He is therefore incapable of contributing anything to his salvation."
John Frame
"Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty."
John Calvin
It is these real principles that guide us and help us to make wise decisions. It is faith in God and his Son Jesus Christ that keep us from surrendering. At Valley Forge the Continental Army was willing to suffer for the cause of freedom. We might be in the winter but we have real hope. Today, many are willing to renew their belief in our founding principles but let us never make the mistake of seeing these founding principles apart from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This November, may we who love Christ and our country say:
Song 2:11-13
For behold, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone.
'The flowers have already appeared in the land;
The time has arrived for pruning the vines,
And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.
The fig tree has ripened its figs,
And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance.
Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,
And come along!'
NASU
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