The besetting sin of conservatives who see what is going on around us is the sin of being strident and shrill. The besetting sin of most other conservatives is to react against that shrillness by adopting a posture of cluelessness. For has not experience shown us that as soon as someone gets a clue, they move straight into Shrill Mode?
Thus the alternative before us — to take one issue for example — is to listen to some sob sister narrative of how homosexuals are marginalized, and victimized, and so on, or to write letters to the editor with a fisted crayon, denouncing the advance of SODomy and SOCialism. So there we are, having to choose between a conservatism that sees it a principled martyrdom to be the next to last one to join the group hug, or a conservatism that writes nothing but spittle-flecked missives. Writing such letters of penetrating despair is a great way to kill time in the run-up to Ragnarok.
What we need, what we desperately need, are merry warriors. What we need is for someone to establish an alternative to “Goliath is a buddy,” on the one hand, and “Goliath is an invincible foe” on the other. No, no . . . Goliath is our new bird feeder (1 Sam. 17:46).
What is it that overcomes the world? It is faith, not cozy friendship. It is faith, not despairing analysis.
But when such faith in fact overcomes the world, the despairing analysts will use this as prima facie evidence to show that the world actually overcame the faith. Since it is woven into their defeatist worldview, the datum that David killed Goliath is taken, since Goliath “always wins,” as evidence that David has turned into Goliath. And matters are not helped when some PR handlers who got into the meeting somehow are urging David to become more like Goliath. “Could we not take a few tips from Goliath . . . common grace, after all?”
There are more options than compromise or carping.