Lynch at Large

I guess you heard about my visit with the Little Rock Christian Academy Oxbridge Debating Society and the National Honor Society combined dinner last Saturday night. They call it the Chesterton Dinner, and my old friend, the resident moral theologian, Mark Quay, invited me to speak. Mr. Neff, the new "wizard in charge," was really cool and so were the young folks.

Since this was one of those rare events in which I spoke from a prepared text, I thought I would break down and post it here.
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Dr. Quay has been all over me for months to do this speech tonight. You know how Mark is when he wants something. He suggests, he plots, appeals to logic, appeals ot ego, appeals to shame. I only wish he appealed to greed. What, Mark, no handsome honoraria?

It is sincerely a pleasure to be invited by Little Rock Christian Academy for this annual Chesterton Dinner. I am informed that this is the fourth such gathering and that I am the first honored visitor to actually speak on Chesterton. Dr. Quay has also been all over me about that.

Now, how is it that I, Pat Lynch, lowly radio host and ink-stained newspaper columnist should be called upon to extol on the lively and entertaining Mr. Chesterton? Certainly it has nothing to do with my somewhat similar profession, not my upbringing in the Roman church into which Chesterton would eventually migrate.

No. I am, alas, convinced that “Mr. Gifted and Talented,” the wizard of world-view, and noted exponent of better living through chemistry has placed his hand on me because I am, like Chesterton, fat.

Not that there is anything wrong with carrying around a few extra pounds. It may be that Mr. G. K. C.. was endeared to many by his abundant girth. Or, was it his abundant wit and powers of observation? Not everybody would consider our patron an intellectual, but he is definitely a man of prophetic abilities.

Let me, from the onset, place Chesterton on the timeline. He was born in 1874 and died in 1935. Almost a century has passed since his most influential works, Heretics and Orthodoxy, were published. G. K. C. had a way with words and paradox. His style was frequently to turn an idea upside down with clever word play. Sometimes I am left to wonder, is this man for real? You will find yourself asking that same question, so let me assure you that, yes. Gilbert Keith Chesterton is on the level.

He was an illustrator, poet, playwright, essayist, columnist, novelist, writer of mysteries, political observer, social critic, Christian apologist, and ceaseless tormentor of self-assured intellectuals. He wrote and wrote and wrote.

It is also worth noting that he has plenty to displease liberals and conservatives, Protestants and Romans, socialists and capitalists alike. Of course, our Mr. C. was an unapologetic capitalist, only not the monopolistic, anti-competitive, corporate welfare loving leaches with which we have become so well acquainted. Some vintage G. K. C.

"Too much capitalism does not mean too many capitalists, but too few capitalists."

"[Capitalism is] that commercial system in which supply immediately answers to demand, and in which everybody seems to be thoroughly dissatisfied and unable to get anything he wants."

"Business, especially big business, is now organized like an army. It is, as some would say, a sort of mild militarism without bloodshed; as I say, a militarism without the military virtues."

There is that great human tendency to pick and chose from a grand literary buffet only those items most appealing to our own taste and prejudices. For example.

"The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.”

On government…

"Men are ruled, at this minute by the clock, by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern."

He, amazingly observed this about politicians, having never seen or heard of FOX news channel.

"For fear of the newspapers politicians are dull, and at last they are too dull even for the newspapers."

Or this,

"It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged."

In the early 1920’s Chesterton published what was perhaps his most prophetic and chilling book, Eugenics and other evils. Eugenics is the controlled and selective breeding of the human race. At the time, it was the progressive and intelligent idea. That was before Adolf Hitler cast his rather ugly pal over the entire movement. Chesterton saw clearly and early the enormous danger of permitting an elite priesthood of social scientists decide who is fit to live.

There was another area in which Mr. C. had an uncanny ability to foresee human catastrophe.

"Now a man preaching what he thinks is a platitude is far more intolerant than a man preaching what he admits is a paradox. It was exactly because it seemed self-evident, to Moslems as to Bolshevists, that their simple creed was suited to everybody, that they wished in that particular sweeping fashion to impose it on everybody. It was because Islam was broad that Moslems were narrow. And because it was not a hard religion it was a heavy rule. Because it was without a self-correcting complexity, it allowed of those simple and masculine but mostly rather dangerous appetites that show themselves in a chieftain or a lord. As it had the simplest sort of religion, monotheism, so it had the simplest sort of government, monarchy. There was exactly the same direct spirit in its despotism as in its deism. The Code, the Common Law, the give and take of charters and chivalric vows, did not grow in that golden desert. The great sun was in the sky and the great Saladin was in his tent, and he must be obeyed unless he were assassinated. Those who complain of our creeds as elaborate often forget that the elaborate Western creeds have produced the elaborate Western constitutions; and that they are elaborate because they are emancipated." ("The Fall of Chivalry" The New Jerusalem)

I am appreciative, and almost grudgingly impressed that LRCA has associated the name of such a notable progressive thinker with this most auspicious evening. Chesterton was an admirer of something he called the “distributive state.” When you set out to inform yourselves about this concept, you will find it most entertaining. It can be summarized like this.

Chesterton is flat-out against monopolies. We used to have laws against that in the United States, believe it or not. He thinks we can, if we chose, come up with ingenuous ways to stand up to such forms of economic tyranny, even when the going gets tough.

I mean to tell the offensive pessimist that I am not at the end of my resources; that I can sell a book or even, if the case grows desperate, write a book. I could do a great many things before I came to definitely anti-social action like robbing a bank or (worse still) working in a bank.

Mr. C is no socialist. Keep that in mind. He just wants not only a flat playing field, but an equal opportunity for everybody to play the game. He strongly favors private property, and in the hands of as may citizens as possible. He is against policies that concentrate wealth property and power. I have a hunch that Mr. C. understands the battle is uphill all the way, and that fighting he war against monopolistic influences has a virtue of its’ own.

G. K. C. is sometimes called the apostle of common sense, or the prince of paradox, but he is certainly an outspoken proponent of virtue. It is the core of Chesterton’s belief and it is why you should care about what he has to say. I think that he is especially relevant today because he is from another time. Chesterton is a modern man, for sure. He writes with a personal familiarity that touches every aspect of the human condition. Yes, he even speaks to the postmodern man.

You know him. Very hip. No propositional good and evil stuff for the postmodern man. Forget about object truth. It’s all relationships. The cult of progress has always been knocking around, and we shold not ignore it. Chesterton didn’t ignore it.

"Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to fit the vision, instead we are always changing the vision."

Mr. C. got his hands dirty in public debates. In his time, that meant lengthy exchanges in the newspapers. Essays. Letters to the editor. Columns. If you take a dip in his famous work Heretics, you will fine unyielding criticism of contemporaries like Shaw and Kipling. He made an uncompromising defense of a Christian and traditional prospective, and it was not reduced to half-truths in thirty-second sound bites. Though frequently sharp, his exchanges are a fine example of respect and patience.

If you were expecting me to include the usual plea for civility, forget it. The most important part of any discussion today would be to actually have it. To argue forcibly and listen patiently is almost too much to expect from the modern mind that looks for the instant gratification of winning. Believe it or not, things can be learned in arguments, even somewhat contentions arguments.

Chesterton’s other most notable work, standing tall among a grand forest of fine and beautiful literary trees, is a work on the Christian faith, Orthodoxy. G. K. C. defines the orthodox, or basic, Christian beliefs as those percepts included in the Apostles Creed.

"These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own."

In the spirit of confession, I must admit that Mr. C. shows far more regard for the authority of the church than I might find comforting. On the other hand, many modern Protestants and evangelicals have so little or no concept of any higher earthly source for moral teaching that I must grant, at least to some extent, Mr. Chesterton his due. Without the ancient fathers and the creeds, the non-negotiable articles of religion, every man becomes a demonination unto himself and a desperate lone ship bound to crash into rocks on the first foggy night.

The other area of discomfort lies at the heart of orthodoxy, which is the search for rightness, which is an open door to egotism, arrogance, exclusivity, and a host of other human evils. Hell is full of right thinking people, just as heaven is full of the forgiven.

Mr. C. was after much more than a theological game of “gotcha.’” Strictly speaking, orthodoxy may not be required to obtain eternal life. I am not speaking as a professional theologian here, but a mere layman already in way over his head. It seems to me, however, that seeking after the traditional historic faith is a sure and safe guide to the Christian life. How else are we to know the good shepherds form the foxes disguised as sheep?

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried."

It is because Chesterton had his feet set so firmly in both the secular and sacred that he is still found to be relevant wise and trustworthy. He teaches us moral certainty without being narrow minded. Chesterton is very worldly without being conformed to the world.

At six feet and four inches tall and around 300 pounds, one might find him a bit intimidating, but he is an inviting figure. He is the kind of person who enjoys beer and dancing and a good joke. G. K. Chesterton, for his deeply personal, relational, works may be the first postmodern man.

Some parting worlds from Mr. Chesterton? Here goes.

"The ultimate effect of the great science of Fingerprints is this: that whereas a gentleman was expected to put on gloves to dance with a lady, he may now be expected to put on gloves in order to strangle her."

"Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it.

"You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion."

"Misers get up early in the morning; and burglars, I am informed, get up the night before."

"The whole pleasure of marriage is that it is a perpetual crisis."

Chesterton is an entertaining and always reliable friend.