| Mind over matter ...
We are more than physical beings; we are also non-physical beings made in God’s image. As a popular joke from the nineteenth century says: What’s the matter? Never mind. What is mind? No matter.
This joke seems to be especially appropriate in the 21st century when the mind appears to be denigrating. As J.P. Moreland said, “If we are going to be wise, spiritual people prepared to meet the crises of our age, we must be a studying, learning community that values the life of the mind." I could not agree more!
With that in mind, I have reserved this page on my site to bimonthly post articles that I believe stimulate serious thinking about important issues or people. Except for this issue ... I decided to do something a bit different, and on the lighter side. This months article is the ...
This featured article helps define what a conservative is and isn't. I thought it might be helpful to define the terms, so to speak, in this election year. Because history tells us that the length of time a nation or civilization lasts, is directly related to the "moral order" of things, not shifting ideology.
Ideology-that is, the manmade formulations and doctrines of both the right and the left in modern American politics-is the enemy of true conservatism. Russell Kirk, the great religious thinker, said that ideology is "the abstract designs of coffee-house philosophers." Most tend to be utopian and end up serving not the welfare of the people, but the interests of power-seekers. Conservatism, on the other hand, is not a set of doctrines, but "a state of mind, a type of character, a way of looking at the civil social order."
This is a fairly lengthy article, but well worth your time. Especially if you consider yourself a conservative, or wonder what conservatism is all about.
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