Quodlibet
Terminal Niceness
by S. M. Hutchens
I recently read a piece by a conservative in mainline Protestantism whose brand of conservatism is too open and unmilitant to sustain orthodoxy, even that which survives in denominations like his. His article brought to mind my liberal college professors in the early seventies. On the whole I liked them and got along well with all but one, who was a particularly aggressive radical. But that old-fashioned live-and-let-live liberal, who was then in the majority, had no way to stop the coming generations of glassy-eyed ideologues who also, like me, profited from his openness, but regarded conservatives as immoral, which justified persecuting them.
In like manner, folks like the writer I'm referencing here, on the basis of the liberality born of decency and hope, cannot defend their terminally Nice churches against those who will liberalize them at any cost. He also fails, in his kindly consideration of errorists, to give due weight to the association of "liberalism" (or "the moderates") with pure Evil and thus the attempt to destroy orthodox Christianity and orthodox Christians—a tireless application of lies by deceit and manipulation that must be clearly, forcefully, and with equal tirelessness, identified in all our dealings with those who have fallen for it, and not treated as just a "difference of opinion." There should not be even the hint of offering it the smallest degree of quarter. (Those who are following the French–Ahmari controversy will see clearly from this comment which side I am on.)
S. M. Hutchens is a senior editor and longtime writer for Touchstone.
subscription options
Order
Print/Online Subscription
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Order
Online Only
Subscription
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on liberalism from the online archives
29.1—Jan/Feb 2016
Secular Credibility Is a Devilish Temptation by James Hitchcock
17.4—May 2004
The Unhappy & Abusive Marriage of Liberalism & Modernism by James Hitchcock
more from the online archives
22.3—April 2009
Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by J. Daryl Charles
16.5—June 2003
on the Importance of Fathers to Churchgoing by Robbie Low
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
