American Christianity is far less bloody than it used to be. Songs like “Power in the Blood” or “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood” or “Are You Washed in the Blood?” are still sung in some places, but fewer and fewer, and there aren’t many newer songs or praise choruses so focused on blood. The Cross, yes; redemption, yes; but blood, rarely. We’re eager to speak of life, but
Francis Beckwith, associate professor of church-state studies at Baylor University and current president of the Evangelical Theological Society, has been received into the Roman Catholic Church, according to reports today.
The Evangelical Theological Society was founded as an academic professional organization for conservative Protestant scholars. The ETS doctrinal statement is, in its entirety: “The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs. God is a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each an uncreated person, one in essence, equal in power and glory.”
A Catholic Democratic pol, the late Chicago Mayor Richard Daley the Greater, once famously said of his opponents: “They have vilified me, they have crucified me; yes, they have even criticized me.”
Some lesser lights than the Pharaoh of Chicago have some similar concerns. Abortion rights supporters in the United States House of Representatives have one request as they fight for legal abortion, widespread contraception education, and sexual liberation.
Castigate them, vilify them, but, please, don’t call them bad Catholics.
Across the pond, my fellow Touchstone contributing editor Rod Dreher points in the Times of London to the emergence of “crunchy conservatism” within the leadership of the Tories. Many of you will remember Rod’s article on “crunchy cons” several years ago in National Review. His point is that there is a new movement of conservatives who are religious traditionalists and political conservatives but who are deeply suspicious of the materialist and consumerist assumptions of the reigning culture mavens, whether of the left or the right. The “crunchy” refers to the eating of organic vegetables, granola, and so forth.
The fact that Michael Novak has served as adviser to the George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, and Steve Forbes campaigns demonstrates his transition from a Dorothy Day-style Catholic liberalism to a Richard John Neuhaus-style Catholic conservatism. Novak attributes his shift to a growing integration between his Catholicism and his political ideology. In a current essay for National Review, Novak argues that the Bush Administration reflects a distinctively Catholic vision of political