A friend of mine who is a pastor has a t-shirt that displays a sheep emerging from a wolf uniform as is to turn the old saying on its head. Usually we accuse a person of being a wolf in sheep’s clothing, so beware; don’t be deceived by looks. But this t-shirt is the opposite, the sheep is shedding the wolf-disguise. To me, it evokes Genesis chapter one, where God declares that all of God’s creation is good, even you and me. The usual sheep-wolf aphorism, however, takes its cue from the Adam and Eve story, Genesis chapter 3, and plays off the notion of original sin, popularized in the fourth century by St. Augustine.
As if the Southern Baptists weren’t in enough trouble already, the president of the Southern Baptist seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Al Mohler, a sheep, a good guy to the millions of evangelicals who follow him on all things religious and political, has decided to join four well established wolves in the political arena, wolves to those of us who believe that Donald Trump’s invasion of the Capitol was a failed coup attempt.
That arena will be the National Conservatism Conference in Miami, September 11-13. The conference is the creation of the Edmund Burke Foundation and is being touted across conservative media and supported by Hillsdale College and its network of donors, admirers, and likeminded institutions across the country.
Those Mohler is joining at the conference and who will also present keynote speeches are Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida; the former Florida Governor, Senator Rick Scott; Florida’s other Senator, Marko Rubio; and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley.
In the June 15 issue of The American Conservative, leading figures in the nascent movement published “National Conservatism: A Statement of Principles.” The ten principles laid out in the article include for example, National Independence, God and Public Religion, Public Research, and Race.
All ten are troubling, but I’ll focus on one of the most grievous. Under Principle Four, God and Public Religion, you will find these ominous words. “Where a Christian majority exists, public life should be rooted in Christianity and its moral vision, which should be honored by the state and other institutions both public and private.” Currently, we have the freedom NOT to practice any religion if we so choose. It’s called freedom of conscience. In its place National Conservatism would install coerced religious practice.
For example, imagine a county with a Christian majority. There, a private business could be required to display a Christian flag on its premises and post the Ten Commandments in its offices. It could be required to give its employees paid holidays for, say, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, the Friday before Pentecost, and the Monday after the first Sunday of Advent. Meanwhile those employees who were, say, Jewish, could be deprived of paid religious holidays for their high holy days — even if the business wanted to grant them or even if the business owner were Jewish. Is that the world you want to live in?
Finally, consider the title of Al Mohler’s keynote speech at the Miami conference: “‘Your God Will Have Been Supplanted by an Idol’: The Dangerous Illusion of a ‘Secular’ State.” I believe that, in order to avoid the kind of state mandated religion that Principle Four would create, the state must remain secular. That is, the state must not take sides in religious disputes, favoring one over the other. For example, the Republican base that supports the speakers at the National Conservatism Conference all want public school teachers and administrators — and now, after the Kennedy v. Bremerton case — coaches, to lead their students in prayers. In our hypothetical, majority-Christian county above, those prayers would necessarily be Christian prayers and most likely, prayers meeting the approval of local evangelical leaders. I assume the prayers would have to be written, so they could get prior approval as to the wording; so spontaneous praying might be difficult to manage under their regime. For example, would the designated pray-ers pray for the nation’s leaders even if they were Democrats? Would they pray in the name of Jesus or in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Would they, before meals, “say grace,” or “ask the blessing?” You can see where this could get pretty sticky and cumbersome and downright silly. A National Conservatism regime would also abuse the natural right of students and teachers who were not evangelical Christians not to participate in others’ religious practices. So much for the First Amendment. And good-bye to the democracy we have enjoyed for 235 years.
So, decide for yourself who is gathering down in Miami next month, sheep or wolves. As I see it, that famous foursome plus Mohler may appear to be sheep, with your best interests at heart, but look below the surface, carefully examine their soft, white wooly coats. Notice the barely visible zippers. Were they given the opportunity to act on the ten Principles of National Conservatism, at any moment, the wolves could slip out of their sheep’s clothing and devour your rights, the rights provided for in the Constitution and died for--by the thousands laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, the thousands blessed by Lincoln’s immortal words at Gettysburg and the thousands whose ghosts stand guard at Point du Hoc on the Normandy coast.
Dick Conville is a university professor (ret.) and long-time resident of Hattiesburg. He can be reached at Rlconville@yahoo.com.
