Saturday, April 29, 2017

Religion and Geopolitics Review: Saturday, April 29

by Dr. David Pence and A. Joseph Lynch


THE WEEKLY BRIEF

R.R. Reno is the editor of First Things magazine. First Things has been an indispensable forum for discussing religion and public life. We have always found it weak, very weak, in understanding the formal covenants of men and the nature of nations. I remember how much I used to look forward to the Richard John Neuhaus survey column ('Public Square') at the end of the monthly magazine when he was editor. At the same time I never thought Neuhaus understood the American nation as a military brotherhood or the Catholic Church as both Apostolic (a public brotherhood of priests) and Marian (the interior devotions of the heart and mercy). Neuhaus was a great reader and trusty scout in the intellectual terrain. At heart, though, he was a Canadian high-church Lutheran hoping for the social recognition of a respectful profile in the New York Times. The immediate successors of Neuhaus (d 2009) didn't get their sea legs (a very charitable depiction). But R.R. Reno is something different. While Catholic intellectuals like George Weigel and Robbie George were falling all over themselves to virtue signal their contempt for Donald Trump, Mr. Reno wrote prescient articles on Disraeli and nationalism during the 2016 presidential campaign. He has also been slow to sound the recent "post-Christian" laments that soon will pass. In fact, Reno is so out of touch with the intellectual elite that surround him he dared to write a book Resurrecting the Idea of a Christian Society (see podcast discussing book). His most recent article at First Things reminds us (with Russell Hittinger) of "the three great covenants" that define us and give men a place to stand: marriage, nation, religion. He ended his article with a description of the covenants that inform our work at AoA. Obviously we think him a man to read. A return of the strong gods.


I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

PHIL LAWLER ON THE BENEDICT OPTIONA return to the parish.

CHRISTIANITY AND RACIAL RECONCILIATIONRemembering Billy Graham and racial integration - he too had a dream.

THE CARDINAL McCARRICK SYNDROMEFrom an old AND RELIABLE source.

THE ST LUKE INSTITUTE -- STILL THE PROBLEM. THE PRIEST-THERAPISTS WHO THOUGHT PROTECTING HOMOSEXUALITY IN THE CATHOLIC CLERGY WAS MORE IMPORTANT THAN PROTECTING YOUNG MALES IN THE CHURCHNot the solution.


II. AROUND THE WORLD

SLAVIC STRONGMEN: Russia and Belarus.

CHINA AND MYANMAR: Fifty-three million people live in the former Burma. They are 90% Buddhist and religious/nationalist identity is closely tied, so Christians and Muslims are often persecuted. Over 100,000 Burmese refugees have been settled in the US since 2007 - most are Christian. A few maps about Chinese relations.

AFGHANISTAN: Afghanistan stability is a regional question - many nations needed - the US least of all.

INTERVIEW WITH FRENCH EDITOR OF NATIONALIST MAGAZINE ON UPCOMING ELECTIONBy Scott McConnell of The American Conservative. Comment on his article and more discussion of the French intellectual right. Emmanuel Marcon seems to be the last gasp of dying globalists. He is the new wine for the old wineskin. Marine Le Penn advocates a France with no public religion. She isn't exactly Sister Marguerite-Marie urging King Louis XIV to adorn the shields of the French soldier with the Sacred Heart of Christ. Nor is she sounding the battle cry of Joan of Arc: "Men of France, do your duty."  Advocating for national identity, however, she may be the best step forward to the renewal of Christianity, nations, and sexual order. Is there a French nation without a Catholic soul? She seems spiritually anemic and joyless from afar. Unlike her opponent, however, she does not want to organize an Atlantic coalition of Europe and America at war with Russia. That is quite enough for an American nationalist to hope she wins. But we venture no advice to French patriots who certainly see things and know things about their own country which might propose a different strategy. They might consider a  Marcon victory as a more manageable transitory situation which will allow them time to consolidate themselves as both European Catholics and French nationalists under a more inspiring leader.


III. US POLITICS

GETTING TO KNOW JOHN BRENNAN: One important link to the real foreign collusion story in Washington DC.

THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION PITTED ONE CANDIDATE FAVORED BY SAUDI ARABIA AND ANOTHER BY RUSSIA. WHICH CANDIDATE WAS AIDED THE MOST BY A FOREIGN POWER?

PROFILE OF PAT BUCHANAN: A fairly long profile of the Catholic American whose greatest error is to think the white west is the basis of our civilization, and not Christianity. He is a Catholic in Protestant America who asks the question "Can all the peoples of the world come here and make one people?" The answer is yes, if we build our nation on Christianity, not an ethnic attachment to Europe. Paradoxically the Anglo Saxon racial identity of Americans never included Mr Buchanan's Irish forefathers. Both the left and the neocon right blacklisted Mr Buchanan instead of arguing with him. It is to their great shame. President Trump also lambasted Mr Buchanan earlier in their lives for racism, but Trump eventually called and apologized long before his presidential run. The most dramatic change in Buchanan's life was when after years of free trade republicanism he came to see the great harm done by globalists to the American manufacturing working class. Excellent journalism about a man steeped in history and abounding with intellectual depth and magnanimity of soul. Here is Buchanan's latest analysis of Trump and his generals and the dangerous road he seems to be taking.

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