Following my post Friday on the Chesterton Society's attack on Trump and discussing Dale' Ahlquist's support for allowing certain people living in adulterous situations to return to Communion, several Facebook Friends chimed in with interesting comments. I think what they have to say is worth sharing.
A lawyer friend said that "the saying [Dale mentioned] that the exception proves the rule means the opposite of what Dale suggests it means."
Just goes to show that being a fan of Chesterton doesn't necessarily mean you are as clear a thinker or as precise in your use of language.
I'm a great fan of G.K. Chesterton and the American Chesterton Society. Let me amend that statement. I am a great fan of Chesteron and was a great fan of the Society. Dale Ahlquist, its founder, has done a splendid job bringing Chesterton to a modern culture that knew little about him. If Chesterton isn't yet a household word, there are many in the last two decades who have come to know him through Dale's work and programming on EWTN. I congratulate him for that.
Unfortunately there's a "but." The first problem for me was the Society jumping on the hate-Trump bandwagon. Up to that time I belonged to the Society, had attended several of their annual conferences, and subscribed to Gilbert, the Society's magazine. I did not renew my subscription, however, after the Society's taking sides that would have, if successful, guaranteed Hillary Clinton's election. After several anti-Trump articles, the final straw was a suggestion from one of their main writers to enter Chesterton's name on the ballot as a write-in. What insanity! So I did not renew my subscription and have no plans to attend another conference.
We're at the Chesterton Conference at Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, PA. I have to say that Chestertonians are some of the happiest people on the planet. We're having a rollicking good time! This morning we heard a great talk on Chesterton's joi de vivre and this afternoon we listened to the conversion story of a magician (who makes his living in the banking industry) who came to the Church after twenty-five years of trial and error, through the impact of Chesterton. His story made me think of one of my favorite poems, The Hound of Heaven. He finished his talk with a few magic tricks. Chesterton would have loved it!
I've been reading my Sept/Oct edition of Gilbert, the Chesterton Society's magazine and came across this interesting statement in an interview with Shakespeare expert Fr. Peter Milward, S.J. The interviewer asked him, "As a Shakespearean scholar, what would you say is Chesterton's most interesting insight into Shakespeare?" His response:
Well, to begin with, Chesterton remarks in his book on Chaucer that the fact of Shakespeare's being a Catholic is "something that every Catholic by every sort of convergent common sense knows to be true." He proves this by emphasizing the indebtedness of the dramatist to Catholic tradition, or the ideal of Christendom, which was the very ideal of Chesterton shared with Belloc. Shakespeare isn't just himself alone, nor can he be understood by himself alone, as so many Shakespeare scholars try to do. He can only be understood in relation to the Christian past, and for him the Christian past was the Catholic past; there was no other.
I found this intriguing so I went to Joseph Pearce's book, The Quest for Shakespeare, to refresh my memory of what he says about Chesterton and Shakespeare. Chesterton believed there was a "chasm of difference" (Pearce's words) between Milton, the Protestant, and Shakespeare, the Catholic, and I think this emphasizes Fr. Milward's statement about the Catholic's connection to the past. But let Chesterton explain:
Milton is possessed with what is, I suppose, the first and finest idea of Protestantism -- the idea of the individual soul actually testing and tasting all the truth there is, and calling that truth which it has not tested or tasted truth of a less valuable and vivid kind. But Shakespeare is possessed through and through with the feeling which is the first and finest idea of Catholicism that truth exists whether we like it or not, and that it is for us to accommodate ourselves to it....But I really do not know how this indescribable matter can be better described than by simply saying this; that Milton's religion was Milton's religion, and that Shakespeare's religion was not Shakespeare's.
Ah.....Catholics are connected to the truth from the very beginning -- the truths of the natural law from man's first footstep on the earth, through the search for truth by pagan philosophers like Socrates and the good doctor Hippocrates, through the chosen people of Israel, to the epitome of truth found in Jesus Christ and the Church he founded. We are not adrift on a sea of individualism, lost in our own egos, but are integrally connected to the truth throughout history as a baby is connected to his mother through the umbilical cord.
I thank God today for being a Catholic and for all my dear ancestors who passed on the faith so that I could rejoice in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament today. And thanks be to God for Catholic apologists like Chesterton who speaks as clearly as ever to our modern age if it cares to listen. He reminds us that truth, no matter how ancient, is ever new.
I've been to a lot of conferences in my life, but never one that featured as much unadulterated, good, clean fun. There is something about studying the "jolly journalist" that brings out the laughter. Every time Dale Ahlquist got up to introduce a talk he had us in stitches. And each of the speakers, no matter what his (or her for those who don't believe in the generic grammatical use of the male pronoun for both men and women) subject, had humor in his talk. And all that without one off-color joke, one use of the name of God as an expletive, one joke that was a mean-spirited put down of others (although there was plenty of lovable teasing with the teasees entering into the joke).
My husband and I had so much fun we are already talking about going to the conference in St. Louis next year. What an adventure! The Saturday banquet was a happy culmination of all that went before. It was a delightful break and when you're involved in fighting serious evil, an annual retreat and the Chesterton Conference are a great combo for ensuring sanity and perseverance in the faith.
Chesterton showed us that the world is so serious we mustn't take it too seriously. In other words, the devil is most effective when he suppresses joy because joy is so inextricably linked to hope. So a James O'Keefe is Chestertonian when he punctures the gasbag of political correctness and exposes the mainstream media (TV, radio, and print) as the three stooges. Writers are Chestertonian when they show the contradictions and hypocrisy that pass for liberal politics or modern religion, etc. Teachers are Chestertonian when they reveal the true, the good, and the beautiful in life. And religious are Chestertonian when they raise our hearts and minds to God, which is the most important activity on earth.
The devil doesn't know anything about humour. It's above his pay grade. He can only smirk, leer, and make a sound that's a cross between a snarl and a lewd giggle. Chesterton knew that, which is why he said in a letter that "I am" what's wrong with the world. We're also what's right with the world when we unite our hearts and minds to God and obey those two great commandments: Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.
My husband and I plan to join the local D.C. chapter of the Society that meets in Sterling. In September they'll be discussing the conference. It brings a smile to my face just to think of it.
The Chesterton conference was outstanding. Among the speakers was James O'Keefe, the young videographer who uncovered ACORN's moral turpitude when he showed they were willing to help a hooker and a pimp set up a brothel using underage girls from the third world. Don't look for this kind of story in the New York Times or The Washington Post. They are too busy shilling for liberalism and moral relativism. O'Keefe, on the other hand, is a first rate investigative reporter doing the job the drive-by media won't. He was the hit of the conference giving the young folks there a great role model of zeal and courage and giving the oldies like me great hope for the future.
To those who say that dressing up and telling a story is "lying" think about this. All story-telling is an opportunity to reflect on moral realities. Jesus told stories to illustrate moral truths and make his audience think and react. That's what O'Keefe and his crew do as well. They role play and photograph the reactions of the "audience." They don't entrap them (like government agents did to Randy Weaver). They may even be hoping for a moral reaction from their audience. Unfortunately, when you are dealing with liberalism that's unlikely. Of all the ACORN offices they visited only one refused to "help" the hooker and the pimp. What their role playing did was to expose truth. And that's the purpose of all good fiction. We're in the story together. So make sure when you respond to the story of life it's according to virtue, not vice!
N.B.: Funny how nobody talked about "lying" when the liberal crowd was "exposing" the crisis pregnancy centers for "lying to women" by withholding up front information to which they did not have a right.
O'Keefe also gave us a lot of great laughs, especially his story of getting Lucky Charms banned from the Rutgers cafeteria for discriminating against the Irish! It just showed that the ridiculousness, not to mention stupidity, of the politically correct diversity crowd.
So enjoy your Lucky Charms and think of young Irishman James O'Keefe while you admire the stereotyped little leprechaun on the front. Pray for this young man and all the "new media" young people like Lila Rose who exposed Planned Parenthood and the students assaulted by Congressman Bob Etheridge. May their numbers grow!
Another Chesterton quote makes me wonder how he would have responded to the tea parties. I think he would have enjoyed them:
The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.
Sounds like the Democrats and Republicans to me. I think the tea party movement should adopt Chesterton. They will only be as successful as they take on the real issues of our day most of which relate to family values and hark back to the great truths.
And so, another Chesterton statement:
Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy - English author & mystery novelist (1874 - 1936)
I often pray for my unknown ancestors who are responsible for me being a Catholic today because they passed on the faith. It's the greatest gift on earth, one that gives us a patrimony that goes back two thousand years! I'm praying for Chesterton today for being such a great public witness to those unchanging truths.
Another Chesterton quote makes me wonder how he would have responded to the tea parties. I think he would have enjoyed them: