As a (much more brief) follow up to my earlier postings:
Derb seems to suggest that Christianity’s title as “Religion of Peace,” ascribed to it by Robert Spencer, is flawed or undeserved. To his credit, he doesn’t state that Christianity’s occasional forays into militancy (the Crusades) are the reason it doesn’t deserve the title. No conservative would be such a fool.
No, Derb is taking a different tack, I think. He is using the conservative axiom: “Weakness is inherently provocative.” If Christians are so nice, so tolerant, et cetera, then doesn’t that make Christianity the enabler of Islam’s barbarities? Perhaps the common identification of Christianity with muscular American self-confidence, and Secularism with limp-wristed European decline is mistaken. Perhaps it is Christianity’s legacy of love which infected Europe with its fatal desire not to offend the cannibals who dine upon it.
And I think he’s got a point, but only up to a point. He’s correct about the effect Christianity has had upon the West, but he’s incorrect to blame it on Christianity.
The plain fact is that there is no Virtue which can be used at all times, in all ways. Christianity teaches that Evil is not an absolute self-existent thing, but is only the result of something Good twisted to inappropriate use. The Manichees held otherwise, but Christianity answered them definitively, showing the Devil as a fallen angel — not God’s opposite, but Michael’s.
Christianity also teaches that the world, and humanity, are fallen and require the constant guidance of the Holy Spirit, voluntarily accepted by individuals through their free choice, to educate and empower the human mind and emotions. Without this guidance, say the saints and the church fathers, we perpetually over-play one Virtue and under-play another, and evil can result even out of our attempts at good.
Thus the evangelist (good) becomes the frothing street-corner raving lunatic pursuing his fixed idea (twisted good). Thus the giver of alms (good) becomes the author of the welfare state (twisted good). Thus the man who seeks to feed his family through wise business dealings (good) becomes the sharpster, the fraud, or the purveyor of unhealthy goods sold by advertisements which play upon the fears and vices, rather than the virtues, of the buyer (twisted good).
In each case, attention to the prodding of the Holy Spirit, or the words of Scripture — in short, a well-maintained set of communication lines with the Almighty — would have been sufficient to prevent the well-intentioned person from spinning off the rails into twisted virtue. The better angels of our natures may only remain so by remaining attentive to God; else they become demons.
So Derbyshire gives Europe, and America too, a smack across the face for their inattentiveness to the pressing danger of Militant Islam. (“All this respect for minorities,” says he, “that you’ve inherited from your Christian ethics, will be the death of you!”)
So it shall. It is a virtue misplaced; it has become a demon. But any other virtue would have done the same, or may yet do the same. Will love of country (a virtue) yet produce another Nazi Germany? Or love of peace (another virtue) and a desire to preserve unique cultural artifacts such as buildings and paintings (virtuous enough, I suppose) produce another Vichy France? Or an enthusiasm for equality, fraternity, and liberty (virtuous sentiments all) produce more of the massacres and social deconstruction of earlier French history?
The solution, though, is not an absence of Christianity; it is the return of it. Christianity is a little different from the paganism of the Romans, or of the Greeks, or of the Carthaginians. Each of these lived, rose to a certain height, and then died, in its turn, and lies under the dust which signifies historical irrelevance. They were purely mortal. Christianity is a little different in that it grows old, old, old, apparently dies off among some generation too jaded with it to take it seriously, and then…surprise! Arises, the following Sunday Morning, after a brief period of occlusion, to be trumpeted fervently by the very children of the generation which lay the stone on its grave. Revivals and Great Awakenings and Reformations and such are a part of her nature.
And were the former lands of Christendom to become the current lands of Christendom, not by some advance of Papal Soldiery but by a movement of individuals to turn their hearts back to the God who alone can tell them when to be Merciful, and when Just; when to be Meek, and when Courageous; when to welcome the stranger and when to defend the family; when to Love tenderly, and when to Love fiercely…WELL! Then there should be no concern about tolerance being taken to suicidal extremes.
Ultimately the fate of Europe and America lies in the hearts of the individuals who occupy their borders. Will they return to Christianity; that is, return to the Living Christ who alone can advise them when they are wielding a virtue too much, or not enough?
Or will they remember a few of the virtues of the civilization which the Church gave them, but not the God who educated them in these virtues? If so, they will deify these virtues, so as to replace the Living God they no longer accept with a mute idol named Thou Shalt Be Generally Tolerant.
And *that*, of course, can be beaten by Militant Muslims. Hell, it can be beaten by Militant Emo Listeners, Militant Celebrity Watchers, or Militant Atkins Dieters. Because it is a shell around a dead heart, and any sufficiently large mass of unthinking humanity can manage to desecrate a corpse.
