After much thought and prayer, I’m realizing that it’s time for me to stop being a conservative.

In some ways, what you just read might be described as clickbait, and yet in another, more profound way, it is true. I have not changed my beliefs. I still believe in the Blessed Trinity, in Western society and its traditions and values. I believe in natural law and in the family, and so on. But I have come to realize that the name “conservative” is no longer a good fit for those who love what is true, good, and beautiful.

To be a “conservative” is to have an orientation toward the world and culture that is fundamentally defensive. I believe it was Roger Scruton who was once asked what it means to be conservative, and he humorously replied that conservatism is about conserving something. If you’re fighting a cultural firestorm set by liberals or communists, and you are caught flat-footed, digging your heels into the ground and fighting for every inch is a great disposition. I thank God for the men and women who, over the last century and a half, have given their lives to that work, digging in their heels and refusing to watch disparate ideologies burn Western civilization to the ground.

But notice that this disposition is, in fact, defensive. Conserving means protecting what is already there. You do not conserve a forest that does not exist. To get a forest where there is none, you must begin to plant trees. New trees.

I think Gen Z and Gen Alpha are inheriting an epochal moment, one in which the culture war has dramatically changed. The reality is that truth and sanity have lost a great deal of ground. There is not much left to conserve. There is now a critical mass of Americans who do not agree with us about what human beings are, what they are for, or their relationship and obligations to God. We have very little common culture left to preserve.

This might be a cause for sadness, but it is also a chance to recognize that we have an opportunity. We may be the first Christian people since the fall of Rome with the opportunity to rebuild a Christian society. In many ways, the current Trump administration feels like the death throes of the postwar consensus. It seems the forests have been burned as far as they are going to be burned. It is now time to start planting.

But planting is slower, harder, and less glamorous than fighting fires. It means building – not just resisting – schools instead of critiques, families instead of slogans, communities instead of coalitions. It requires attention to the quiet, unglamorous details that make a shared life possible. We cannot import fully formed oaks; we must plant seeds. It is generational work. You may not live to see the forest, but that has always been the cost of civilization.

And so, as someone who believes in God, in family, in patriotism, and in private property, it falls to me to look around and begin building. In the end, was that not the goal of conservatives all along? Surely they did not lie awake at night dreaming that we might carve out just enough space to say that a man cannot become a woman without losing our jobs. I am sure they knew they were fighting fires, waiting for the day when new generations would have the opportunity to plant new trees. We should not settle for the charred remains of what was once there.

We are not conserving; we are advancing.

I do not yet have a word in mind. Perhaps coming up with one is the first project to which we should dedicate ourselves. Then again, perhaps we have left the era of naming ideologies behind. But a word that carries connotations of defeat and desperation will no longer do, at least not for me. As Christians, we know that in the end we win. We need to start acting like it.

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This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal. 

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