What passes for conservatives politically seems to be the Republicans but they are all over the page -- not only in what they hold and advocate for but who they are willing to work with. There is little stomach for others unless there is absolute agreement across the board and most refuse to make any deals to get much of anything and will toss out the leader who does. They seem to eat their own, as the expression goes. In the end, they are not in charge of the steering wheel but the brakes. They can slow the pace of liberal change but seem unable to reverse much of it. Perhaps they are hindered by the so-called deep state and the bureaucracy but they are also disorganized and nitpick at each other constantly. Their Pyrrhic victories seem to come at the cost of both public understanding and support. They seem to be just as unpopular at winning as they are when they lose.
This is also true in culture. The conservatives seem unable to stop the pace of liberal values and programs in everything from education to social mores. They seem to have lost the battle even when the cause is common sense and most Americans should support them. Our society grows increasingly coarser in language and the media consistently pushes the boundaries of good taste. PG has become PG13 and PG13 has become R. Prime time is not immune from the social cause that rules the story or monologue and it never puts conservatives in a good light. Even though from news to talk radio the conservatives have a large following, it does not seem to translate into much when it comes to shaping the values of our age. Even when abortion is removed as a constitutional right and the judgment left to the states, the numbers of abortions increases. Go figure.
It is also true of religion. Think here of the consternation in the papal apartments over what to do with the tension between the Latin Mass and the post-Vatican II Mass. The pope cannot bring himself to say the Mass that Rome used for some 450 years was wrong or deficient but neither can he bring himself to say that the New Mass is wrong or deficient. Nobody will be happy no matter what he does. So he will find some mediating position which will slow down the push for the Latin Mass, ad orientum celebration, kneelers, communion on the tongue, etc., but allow the Paul VI Mass to be the norm. He might even caution some of the outspoken folks on the lunatic fringe to stop with the clown suits and idiot stuff currently being tolerated. In the end, the Bishop Martins and Cardinal Cupiches of this world will have to get along and so will the Cardinal Burkes and Bishop Stricklands. Calm is the goal. Conservatives should be prepared to settle for a light foot on the gas pedal of change and be happy. Will they? Who knows?
For Lutherans, it often seems the same. We fight over bylaws instead of doctrine and over personal taste instead of the worship soul of our confession. We seem content to slow the pace of change but are not equipped to reverse it. We look with fear at what has happened to the Methodists and Anglicans but neither do we want to be like the Wisconsin Synod -- a small and almost insignificant denomination outside itself. So we preserve the status quo. We find a way to get along. Sometimes we are distracted by court cases and school closings but the rest of the time we do not have the stomach to bleed too much of our sacred membership numbers or our way of doing things. We find an accommodation. Sure, we have folk who like to stir things up but most of the time the leaders are just trying to put a lid on things, to contain the problem as much as solve it. Even the way we deal with differences seems to be designed more to reconcile and resolve.
It is probably left to the local situation and the individual congregation to preserve our Lutheran identity in any form resembling our Confessions. That is not new. It has pretty much always been that way. Whether Missouri or Rome or whatever, it is the people and pastor gathered around the Word and Table of the Lord where the real stuff happens. We are probably better off when viewed from this perspective than from the bird's eye view of the whole. I suspect Rome is too. We all are. The great levers of change on the big scale require more of our soul than the local. The problem is when the local also becomes content merely to slow the pace of progressivism and slow things down. Then there will be little hope left. A moderate progressivism maybe what works but it will be just as damaging to the Church in the long haul as liberal gains that are unchecked. Worse, it may mask what is really going on.
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