Originally published at crisis magazine
Liturgy and politics are not so dissimilar. For those who consider themselves aficionados or pundits, both spheres offer endless opportunities for analysis, discussion, and persuasion. There is a soteriological element as well—for if we can just get the liturgy right, just usher in the right candidate or political party, everything will be restored. “All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.”
For those not so disposed, however, such heady bantering can quickly grow…wearisome. And though I may not be all that astute in things liturgical or political, I do have a workingman’s knowledge of human nature enough to know that it is fallen, prone to overcorrection, and subject to the law of unintended consequences.
Movements—whether it’s MAGA or “Restore the ’54”—are reactionary; they do not rise but from a vacuum. John Adams said, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” In the gaping hole left by the dearth of that individual virtue—or even the knowledge of what virtus is—a populist nationalism has stepped in to take its place. And in the Church, the sinew that bound all
