What does ‘conservative’ mean?

What is a conservative? The word is tossed around like most words are, without much critical reflection on what the term actually means. Is it conservative to support the United States no matter what? To support any war started by a Republican? Just what is it to be ‘conservative’?

I like to start with the dictionary, and mine defines conservative as:

“holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion.”

That seems to be a good definition – but is that what the GOP and modern conservatives mean when they say they are conservative? Is it really about conserving the past and the permanent things? In a happier age, Edmund Burke wrote:

“…in this enlightened age I am bold enough to confess that we are generally men of untaught feelings: that, instead of casting away all our old prejudices, we cherish them to a very considerable degree; and, to take more shame to ourselves, we cherish them because they are prejudices; and the longer they have lasted, and the more generally they have prevailed, the more we cherish them. We are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason; because we suspect that the stock in each man is small, and that the individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of nations and of ages. Many of our men of speculation, instead of exploding general prejudices, employ their sagacity to discover the latent wisdom which prevails in them.”

So the first principles of true conservative thought are a love for, and healthy embrace of, the past.

Antichrist

It occurs to me that the spirit of the final anti-Christ will not be an atheistic denial of God, but rather an acknowledgment of all that the God of the Bible is and has said, but with the caveat that he can be overthrown. In other words, a charge that he is not Almighty and not sovereign, but is able to be defeated. Thus Pullman and His Dark Materials.

Yoga leads to possession

This probably puts me firmly into the fundamentalist camp, but I don’t mind. An article says that yoga can lead to demonic possession, and I tend to agree. All kinds of non-Christian practices that were anathema when I was a kid (not that long ago) are now widely embraced, including horoscope reading, acupuncture, and yoga. Many of these eastern practices have their roots in the idol worship of false religions, and open the mind by making it blank.

New Music

Rachel has a site up now to podcast her songs. It’s not having a contract and touring, but it’s a baby step. Go and check it out, especially the song called “A Sign.”

LDS Doctrine II

LDS scholar Truman Madsen responded to the theology of liberal Protestant Paul Tillich by setting forth some propositions. These propositions shed light on unique and non-Christian LDS doctrines. They include:

There is more than one self-existent being, self-existent and co-existent with God.

God is conditioned by uncreated human freedom.

God is finite in some respects and infinite in others

LDS Doctrine

LDS Professor James McLachlan describes some Mormon doctrines that emphatically differ from orthodox Christianity:

Latter-day Saints…accept that God is not the metaphysical ultimate and sole ground of being. Joseph Smith indicated that both God and “man” are “self-existing” beings.

On the difference between immortality and eternal life

With respect to life after death, the LDS church is a universalist religion. All beings have immortality through the atonement of Christ. Joseph Smith claimed that not only humans but animals and planets have eternal spirits. Every creature is immortal, having everlasting life, but “eternal life” is interpreted as deification…all will attain immortality, but only those who learn to love perfectly will attain godhood, eternal life.

On God ‘developing compassion’

In LDS doctrine…God cares, in part, because God, as a once finite and human person, developed compassion through the experience of temptation and suffering in human existence…Christ could not fully understand the suffering of this world until his immortal spirit-body became mortally embodied and fully human.

Eucharistic practices 1.7

The Bishop (Jeremy Taylor) then proceeds to distinguish between alterable and unalterable rites as follows:

But where the Apostles did not interpose, there the Church have their liberty; and in those things, also, which evidently were no part of the appointed liturgy or ministration, in those things, though it be certain the Apostles did give rules of order and decency, yet because order is as variable as the tactics of an army, and decency is a relative term, and has a transient and changeable sense, in all these things there is no prescription to the Church, though we did know what the Churches apostolical did practice, for they did it with liberty, and, therefore, we are not bound; the Churches are as free as ever; though the single persons in the Churches can be bound, yet the Churches always have liberty.

I instance in the institution of significant ceremonies, that is, such which are not matters of order and decency, but merely for signification and the representment of some truth or mystery. Those which are prudently chosen are in their own nature apt to instruct. Thus, the use of pictures in the Greek and in the Lutheran Churches is so far useful, that it can convey a story, and a great and a good example to the people that come thither, and so far they may be for edification. But because these can also, and do too often, degenerate into abuse, and invade religion, to make a law of these is not safe; and when that law does prevail to any evil that is not easily by any other means cured, it does not prevail upon the conscience, and, indeed, to make a law for the use of them, is not directly within the commission of the ecclesiastical power.

Google Docs improves

It was getting to the point where I wouldn’t use Google Docs anymore for much of anything. This was due to the advent of Buzzword and my love for it. But Google has taken a small step forward with the advent of a fixed-width page view inside Google Docs. It makes for a bit better interface, and restores some usefulness to G Docs.

Eucharistic Practices 1.6

Judge Phillimore continues:

Bishop Jeremy Taylor in his “Rule of Conscience” lays down as Rule XII, All those Rituals which were taught to the Church by the Apostles concerning Ministries, which were of Divine institution, do oblige all Christendom to their observation.

And on this rule he observes:

[1] I instance in the Holy Sacrament first of all; concerning which the Apostles delivered to the Churches the essential manner of celebration, that is, the way of doing it according to Christ’s commandment, for the words themselves, being large and indefinite, were spoken indeed only to the Apostles, but yet they were representatives of all the whole ecclesiastical order in some things, and of the whole Christian Church in other; and therefore, what parts of duty, and power, and office did belong to each, the Apostles must teach the Church, or she could have no way of knowing without particular revelation.

[2] Thus the Apostles taught the Bishops and Priests to consecrate the symbols of bread and wine before they did communicate; not only because by Christ’s example we were taught to give thanks before we eat, but because the Apostles knew that the symbols were consecrated to a mystery. And this was done from the beginning, and in all Churches, and in all ages of the Church; by which we can conclude firmly in this rule, that the Apostles did give a canon or rule to the Churches to be observed always, and that the Church did never believe she had authority or reason to recede from it. For in those rites which are ministries of grace, no man must interpose anything that can alter any part of the institution, or make a change or variety in that which is of Divine appointment. For the effect in these things depends wholly upon the will of God, and we have nothing to discourse or argue; for we know nothing but the institution, nothing of the reason of the thing, and therefore we must in these cases, with simplicity and obedience, apply ourselves to practice as we have received, for we have nothing else to guide us. Memory and obedience, not discourse and argument, are here in season.

Bishop Alexis Bilindabagabo on GAFCON

We had the privilege of having Bishop Alexis worship with us on Sunday, as he passed through the area. He is preparing for GAFCON, I meeting that I have doubt about. My doubts are in the vein of why have another meeting that does nothing to sever the ties to heretics? But Bishop Alexis said GAFCON will not be about the debates and arguments, he said “Either you believe the Bible, or you don’t. Either you accept the Apostles Creed, or you don’.”

In effect, no more arguments, it’s settled. He says GAFCON will be about future direction, mission, and planting churches. Praise God for that!