Two Things 2/26/24
Debating Ukraine, desecrating St. Patrick's
Coffee this Friday, March 1, at the usual time and place.
(1) Ukraine and the future of the American-led order: In the wake of Tucker Carlson’s bizarre fascination with Russian grocery stores, and with Sweden’s impending accession to NATO, NY Times columnist Bret Stephens and former Defense official Elbridge Colby joined Bari Weiss’s Honestly podcast for a debate on continuing U.S. aid to Ukraine—an issue now enmeshed with politics on the southern border and other geo-strategic issues (Israel, Taiwan). Their debate was wide-ranging, and the entire episode is worth a listen. Both Stephens and Colby seem to assume we’re on the cusp of a third world war, one that won’t so much as “start” suddenly as grow gradually out of uncontained regional conflicts. Where Stephens and Colby differ is what America should do about it, a disagreement ultimately grounded in what they think America’s role in the world should be.
Stephens is a biting critic of the isolationist turn in the GOP—and in the American body politic more generally. This sentiment, he says, is what led to the Second World War. We ought not abandon our role as guardian of the post-war liberal international order. Stephens concedes this means the U.S. must play “global policeman,” though selectively. Here he is at the NY Times a couple weeks ago:
The point of helping Ukraine defend itself against its despotic foe — like the point of defending Israel, or Taiwan, or NATO members rich or poor — isn’t altruism. It’s self-interest rightly understood, the kind of understanding that prewar isolationists like Vandenberg gained only from the ashes and agony of a world war. For the G.O.P. to now lose that understanding is as much a disgrace to it as it is, potentially, a disaster for us all.
Colby, for his part, thinks the U.S. has to be selective, too, but his eyes are fixed on China, which he regards as a far more serious threat. He wants to see Ukraine deprioritized in favor of a build-up of industrial and military capabilities focused on the Western Pacific. Here he is in Time last July:
It is critical to think clearly and realistically through this prism about how to prevent Russia from subordinating Ukraine. Crucially, this must be done with a forthright, clear-eyed recognition that China and Asia must be the priority for our military, geopolitical, and economic efforts. A war in the Western Pacific is distinctly possible in this decade, losing it would be catastrophic, and we are not preparing for it with the urgency, scale, or focus needed.
…
It is in America’s interest to … ensur[e] Ukraine can defend itself effectively, but we must pursue that interest in a manner consistent with our highest priority of restoring a formidable denial defense along Asia’s first island chain. There is a way to do that.
As I listened to their debate and what’s at stake, I was struck by the utter absence of American leadership—real political leadership—on these issues. Whether you take Stephens’ or Colby’s side, there is a deep, yawning chasm between what must be done and what the American people seem willing to do. To mobilize a nation—economically, militarily, and morally—requires the kind of statesmanship that doddering old men and demagogic narcissists are incapable of.
(2) From disenchantment to desecration: Carl Trueman comments at First Things on that funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York:
One obvious question is why an atheist man convinced that he is a woman and committed to a life of prostitution would wish to have a funeral in a church. One answer is that the struggle for the heart of a culture always takes place in two areas: time and space. As the Christian transformation of the Roman Empire was marked by the emergence of the liturgical calendar and the turning of pagan temples into churches, so we can expect the reverse to take place when a culture paganizes. The pagans will respond in kind. And so we have a month dedicated to Pride and church buildings used for the mockery of Christianity. Time and space are reimagined in ways that directly confront and annihilate that once deemed sacred. A funeral in a Catholic cathedral for an atheist culture warrior is a first-class way of doing this.
This goes to a point I have made before: Our age is not marked so much by disenchantment as by desecration. The culture’s officer class is committed not merely to marginalizing that which previous generations considered sacred. It is committed to its destruction. Disenchantment has passive connotations, a dull, impersonal, somewhat tedious but inevitable process. But desecration speaks to the exultation that active destruction of the holy involves. When Gentili is celebrated as a “great whore” … in a eulogy greeted with wild applause, then “desecration” seems the only word that captures both the blasphemy and the exhilaration of the moment.
Community Haps
First Pres Lenten Lecture Series: Wednesdays of Lent, First Pres is hosting its Lenten Lecture Series exploring “what it means to love God and others as Jesus loved.” On Wednesday, March 13, Dr. Brad Hale will give the fourth lecture, “Love and Sex in a Time of Crisis.”
C.S. Lewis Lecture by Kirk Cherry: Mark your calendar for Sunday, April 21 at 11:00 am, when Kirk Cherry will give a lecture at First Congregational Church on C.S. Lewis. Details will follow in coming weeks.
Hope to see you Friday.