The word ‘conservatism’ is connected with conservation, but of what? Political conservatives in western nations seek to conserve just laws that lead to well-functioning societies. Just laws punish those who do wrong and safeguard those who do right. But who are we to say what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’? In our age this is a real question for many because objective truth has been thrown out the window in favour of subjective opinion. These ‘opinions’ are not all that original. Subjective ‘opinions’ have been shaped and guided by post-modern thought commonly taught in some university courses. These subjective understandings can even filter down to the sciences, for example, chemistry in a way that I will not explain but which I have witnessed. Intellectual opinion always filters down to the many one way or another and this is the world we find ourselves in. There also exists in our world opinion coming from a different direction altogether: Islam. This religion is full of certainty and mission, their mission being to convert, enslave or kill. Softening this fact with talk of ‘extremists’ and ‘Islamism’ misses the tactics and aims of Islam, probably because of enforced prevailing Western consensus on multiculturalism as a good. What is considered right and wrong in Islam can result in harm or death to the existing inhabitants whose countries Muslims have migrated to. Many of the troubles we have seen around the world are enabled under the banner of multiculturalism.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party, with its stance against multiculturalism, but not multi-ethnicity, (the two are very different), is a welcome participant in our political system. One Nation is for the upholding of Australia’s long-held values and expects immigrants to abide by our laws, not theirs. Thus, no Sharia law, no halal taxes. Pauline Hanson had been a brave conservative in this area for many years.
We must question all of our sources of information. Conservatives who reject the fed narratives are not maladapted weirdos who are no more than ludites, pessimists, old-fashioned, anti-scientific and contrarian. I suggest a different story: Christian conservatives seek to preserve values founded upon the truth of Scripture, viewing this amazing book full of nuanced but also clear-cut messages of truth as leading to human and so cultural flourishing. Aware Christians and non-Christians alike struggle to expunge Marxism from our public policy space. Yes, I believe our Western world is a Marxist world that knows how to harness language for the promotion of its ideas and ideals. Examine the sacrosant words and ideas we are fed: love is love, gay, mental health, climate change, racism, feminism, multiculturalism, social justice, inclusion. The level of outrage you may feel reading this list proves the truth of my argument. You may have accepted the list.
Is not the church called to stand up as salt and light in the world? Why capitulate to Marxism or Islam through getting sucked in by their language? In this is love, bothering to inform the culture about the destructive forces in our midst. There are many in the world who question leftist narratives at a deep, subterranean level but find the new status quo too compelling to resist because of the force of assenting voices and of penalties for disobedience. Jesus came into the world to die for the sins of the world that whoever believes in Him may gain eternal life. We make it very difficult for people to come to faith in God from a background of moral chaos. We also invite social chaos into our society and troubles to individuals who walk down the paths of darkness deemed to be healthy and good by pagans. I include those who believe in no god as well as those who believe in a god other than the God revealed in the Bible as ‘pagans’. What we humans do has a bearing on, and influences, what we will believe. The morality we beckon is not disconnected from people’s attraction to, or repulsion from, God. The people we conservatives elect to government are not seen as gods but are acknowledged as fallen creatures, like all of us, but who are our best hope for a future that is shaped in God’s image rather than man’s. Much in Western law has been far from arbitrary. Traditional Western laws reveal the heart of God towards human beings. For example, by forbidding murder, God is protecting all people. The West has not abided murder or torture or injustice. It does not abide unfairness by one human being towards another.
Fallen Israel was to be a beacon to the nations, showing another way to the nations round about her, not as a self-righteous measure but as a way of providing leadership to pagans. It is because God cared for these other nations that He provided Israel to be a beacon. But God’s people failed. The ancient divided kingdom of God’s people comprised Judah (the southern kingdom) and Israel (the northern kingdom). They ignored God’s instructions to them and disobeyed God’s two central commands; to love God and neighbour. They disobeyed God’s precepts and instead copied the nations round about them. They thus foolishly indulged in idolatry, and the injustice and lack of mercy which are connected with idolatry. Before Israel’s fall, there was an open invitation for anyone who wanted to, to join the nation of Israel. We know this from God’s commandments to Israel concerning their care of the stranger in their midst. I am not inferring here that contemporary immigration policy should be based upon open borders. In Old Testament times, immigration to a country would not have come saddled with what the West values today – multiculturalism. If someone wanted to join Israel, they knew they were going to a nation that was under God (the one God of the Bible) and that they were forsaking the pagan world from which they came. The newcomer adhered to the laws of its host country, they didn’t barge in and demand new laws that conflicted with the laws of Israel.
As ancient Israel was punished for its abandonment of God, truth and real justice, so He will punish us if we abandon our mandate. For Israel’s grave departure from Him again and again, with the truth-tellers (prophets) being killed rather than Israel heeding their message, Israel and Judah were deported to other lands. As God punished Israel so He could punish the Church, not in its entirety but in its various places of disobedience. Of course the Church will always continue but as we are told in Revelation, specific churches were singled out for strong rebuke and even threatened with extinction:
Revelation 2:4-5 (ESV) 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
Our World Our Faith 