Not that you asked, but a debate about the assertion you posted today — - "Mac said that crunchy conservatism can’t be practiced without a serious religious commitment, which means submission to a real power greater than the individual" — -seems at the heart of what the online conversation about your book needs to address. The corollary, which is whether real Christian faith, particularly of the conservative kind, is really reconcilable with American nationalism might also be worth considering.
He’s right. I’ll have to come back to this later — I have to edit several pieces right now. Bruce? Angelo? Caleb? Anybody? Care to take this on?
I will say (again) that I’ve come to believe that the kind of neotraditionalism I espouse in the book only really makes sense to religious conservatives. You don’t have to be religious to share some of its precepts, but it only really hangs together for those who — Christian, Jewish or whatnot — believe that the material world is built on spiritual realities.
