The Mines of Moria, Mr Trump, Prince William's Religion, Polite Conformity and more.

It’s slow going through this part of the Lord of the Rings. The Fellowship of the Ring have been defeated by the mysterious dark forces in the mountains—a blizzard, Warg-wolves, a multi-tentacled denizen of the deep and the dark tunnels of the Mines of Moria—the dwarf kingdom of Khazad-dûm. In myths and movies and mythic movies the caves are symbolic of the underworld, but also the subconscious, the deep, dark caverns of the mind and soul. Ever notice how writers manage to have their hero encounter their demons in some sort of underground territory? - the basement, the wine cellar, the subway train, a dark tunnel, down a well, a pit or a cave of some sort? The symbols register below the conscious, verbal functioning and key important emotional responses in the reader—viewer. Like all imaginative writers, Tolkien understood this. By the way Wednesday of this week is International Tolkien Reading Day. I’ll be giving a short talk at Greenville’s Christ on Main Catholic Information Center on “The Little Way through Middle Earth.” If you’d like a book that uses Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Quest to structure the spiritual journey check out my Way of the Wilderness Warrior.

I’m with Rod Dreher on Donald Trump. I voted for him while holding my nose, and while I view many of the actions of his administration with approval, I think his warmongering is stupid and dangerous, and think his own thuggish lack of self filtering is incredible. Yes, know: Ayatollah bad man. Islamic threat real and ugly, but I am still repulsed by the MAGA jingoism, amazed at the level of egomania combined with vulgarity and foul mouthed immaturity of the man. I continue to be astonished that this great country of ours could not put any candidates forward for the highest office in the land better than Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. I’m prepared to concede that the present conflict with Iran may be the right thing to do, but our experience in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Afghanistan does not inspire confidence. Since writing, some of my readers recommended this analysis of the situation by on Jeff Childers’ substack. Very interesting!

That’s how I feel personally, but this is more of an opinion about the man than a political or military judgement. On those levels, I am certainly no military expert nor am I much of a politically minded person. I often say my politics are Amish and I take I Timothy 2:1-2 as my political position and duty: St Paul writes, “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness". Considering that St Paul was writing during the reign of the monster Nero, it’s about all we can do.

Prince William was asked about his religious commitment in an interview last week. The heir to the British crown, and therefore the future head of the Church of England and “Defender of the Faith” remarked that he doesn’t much go to church, but he has a “quiet belief” whatever that means. Is it too radical and rigid to ask whether he is able to affirm the Nicene Creed? One doesn’t expect the man to be a theologian, but he comes across as having inherited the depth of his mother. In other words, “Tim nice but dim”. Prince William seems a perfectly ordinary modern 21st century upper class Englishman. A mild mannered, default agnostic. By “default agnostic” I mean he never really gives God consideration as much more than a kind of cultural wallpaper. “God—-if he’s there—is the idealization of our values” that sort of thing. As such he will be the perfect head of the Church of England—a once noble sect that has now devolved into a pleasant community of pleasant people trying to make he world a pleasant place. An Australian friend once commented in that refreshingly brash way some of them have, “The Church of England? That ain’t a religion mate. It’s a set of table manners.” A more gutsy approach can be found in my book The Quest for the Creed. It is twenty chapters taking a fresh look at the Apostle’s Creed.

Prince William’s “quiet belief” reminds me of the three possible responses to the claims of Christianity put forward by Monsignor Guissani. Guissani worked for many years as a high school and college chaplain and he said young people responded to the gospel with either polite conformity, open rebellion or intelligent enquiry. Polite conformity is “Quiet belief” going with the flow—attending Mass if that is what is expected. Doing one’s duty, fulfilling one’s obligation. Doing the minimum. Lukewarm at best. The person in open rebellion says “This is dumb. I’m outta here. I don’t believe any of it and I’m certainly not going to DO any of it.” Intelligent enquiry is just that: Faith seeking to understand.

When I was a high school chaplain I would ask the kids which of the three was best. They chose intelligent enquiry but for second best the rightly chose open rebellion because at least the person was engaging with an act of the will and if once so engaged, they might move to intelligent enquiry whereas the polite conformist would rarely feel the need to do anything more—and furthermore the parents and priests and peers would actually be satisfied—or even be pleased with and encourage polite conformity.

On reflection, of course, it is not only young people who fall into these categories. I see pews filled with the polite conformists. The Christian faith is only good news when it is subversive. Subversive of our polite conformity, subversive of our smug self righeousness, subversive of our easy materialism, our crass consumerism, our nationalistic hubris, our implicit violence and our subtle pride.

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