Sacrament of Personal Freedom

After the recent Worcester Catholic Men's Conference, the Chesterton Society of Worcester hosted a dinner with Dale Ahlquist, president of the American Chesterton Society. After dinner, I was able to talk one-on-one with Dale, and I mentioned one of my most favorite Chesterton passages. Like the late great Mr. Chesterton, I despise birth control. So many of our social ills can be traced back to the increased use of contraceptives.

In the chapter "Babies and Distributism" from the book The Well and the Shallows, Chesterton gives several reasons why he despised birth control. These reasons are worthy enough, but the highlight of this chapter is not the list of reasons against contraceptive use, but rather the argument for having a child. Chesterton understands that to talk of the child as-a-burden is to put reality upside down. In this modern dreary world of wage slavery and the world's corresponding view that people are mere economic units whose duty it is to consume and buy products for the health of the state, there is no true outlet of creativity... except one. It is no wonder that there is such a dearth of hope in modern society, and that there is such a pent up desire for change. There is something missing, and we collectively cannot put our finger on it. We're missing our children.

Our great source of freedom comes from the first obligation God placed on men, "Be fruitful and multiply!" Chesterton understands true creativity:

Now a child is the very sign and sacrament of personal freedom. He is a fresh free will added to the wills of the world; he is something that his parents have freely chosen to produce and which they freely agree to protect. They can feel that any amusement he gives (which is often considerable) really comes from him and from them and from nobody else. He has been born without the intervention of any master or lord. He is a creation and a contribution; he is their own creative contribution to creation. He is also a much more beautiful, wonderful, amusing and astonishing thing than any of the stale stories or jingling jazz tunes turned out by the machines. When men no longer feel that he is so, they have lost the appreciation of primary things, and therefore all sense of proportion about the world. People who prefer the mechanical pleasures, to such a miracle, are jaded and enslaved. They are preferring the very dregs of life to the first fountains of life. They are preferring the last, crooked, indirect, borrowed, repeated and exhausted things of our dying Capitalist civilisation, to the reality which is the only rejuvenation of all civilisation. It is they who are hugging the chains of their old slavery; it is the child who is ready for the new world.

The world has it wrong. Children are not a burden, they are a blessing.

YouTube Photo Montage of Chesterton in America

Via Monsignor Sullivan, the Chesterton Institute uploaded this montage of photos from the event on Thursday night to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drG2NDZlhos

I will keep everyone updated as to the status of the podcast of the talks, which should be available shortly.

Misty Brook Farm - Community Supported Agriculture

Dearest Chestertonians,

Thanks to Kurt Zelch for this link to an article on Misty Brook Farm in Barre, MA:

http://www.telegram.com/article/20100328/NEWS/3280388/1101

Misty Brook is a Community Supported Agriculture Farm (CSA), where you can pay for a farm share and receive locally grown meat, dairy, and vegetables every week. It may be a good way to support local agriculture.

You can check out the farm's website for more information on buying shares:

http://www.mistybrook.com/

On Chesterton and Moderate Politics

It is, appropriately, a paradox that being Chestertonian makes you both a political moderate and a political extremist. You're a moderate in the sense that the Chestertonian view is the middle between extremes. You're an extremist in the sense that this point of view will draw breath of fire from both liberals and conservatives, and raised eyebrows from the apolitical.

The extremist sense of Chestertonian politics is easy to describe - pro-life, pro-family, against big business, against big government, and outspoken about the differences between men and women. The Chestertonian view of these issues will surely raise the temperature of any political discussion.

As for its moderate characteristics, well, there are two aspects to Chestertonian politics that make them moderate. First, they truly fall between extremes. Creating an artificial pole of 'liberal' and 'conservative' in government and economics (which is not hard to do, as they are truly polarized) we see one interested in government intervention and the other interested in personal responsibility. Moral conservatives frown on drink, while moral liberals frown on very little. In terms of care for the poor, one favors handouts and the other favors, well, very little.

There is another sense in which Chestertonian politics are moderate, in this case in the sense of being mild and reasonable. This is embodied in the Chestertonian value of dialogue. There is a refreshing lack of polarity in political discussions of a Chestertonian bent. It can be disarming, after mentioning one of the above 'extreme' topics, to hear someone discoursing on them reasonably, with adequate pauses allowed for the expression of an alternative opinion. It is very quaint, really, this mode of dialogue.

Although there can be little doubt that this method of political dialogue is exactly what is needed right now, it remains to be seen whether the political system is capable of rehabilitation. But, as Dale said to us last Saturday, there is no greater cause than one that is uncertain of victory. The question is, then, whether these political principles will be put into practice at all.

Welcome

This blog has been set up for members of the G.K. Chesterton Society of Worcester to share writings, thoughts, and controversies in a public space. There being no doubt that the greatest intellectual and literary talents in all of Worcester reside within this group, reading this blog is sure to be an exercise in managing high expectations. However, we should not make this a reason to restrain our considerable talents, but rather we should incite each other to reach for the highest pinnacles of illumination and demonstration possible for such an elite group.

Write on, Bretheren, and let humility be no bar to excellence!