When we still lived in the vicinity of St. Joseph’s Seminary in Grand Rapids, it was not at all rare to encounter the late aging Father Maloney on the street as we were both seeking a breath of fresh air or at the pharmacy where we both had prescriptions filled. He had at one time served at the prestigious St. Andrews downtown to which he referred to as “The Cathedral.” Father Maloney was such a gracious soul that if there would be a purgatory (which there isn’t) I would think he would not have to be detained there very long; and if I would ever want to become Roman Catholic (for which I have not the least intention) I would like to have Father Maloney as my parish priest.

We were both conservatives, but . . . 

One thing enjoyable about conversation with Father Maloney was our common love at times for a bit of innocent mischief. When we once met a day or two after Reformation Day and I asked him, “How did you spend Reformation Day?” it must have been with a twinkle in his eye that he told me, “I spent the day praying for you that you may someday be· come a saint.” When I tried to tell him that I was a saint already he had no ear at all for that about which the Bible is plain as can be.

Father Maloney and I were both conservatives but it would have been a caricature to identify us with each other because too often the values he cherished and wanted to conserve were alien to mine. However, it was not difficult to sympathize as he talked about their changing liturgy and when out of the depths of his troubled soul, he lamented, “I hate it! I h–a–t-e it!”

Obviously, conservatism among Roman Catholics is not having a field day, notwithstanding the determined efforts of the popular Pope John Paul II to hold to the line. In his book, Our Changing Liturgy, Roman Catholic author, C. J. Me Naspy, S. J., gives an almost humorous sidelight on this in relating the following:

“Recently a friend of mine was escorting a group of visitors around the new cathedral in Baltimore. He pointed to the image of the Last Supper and named each of the Apostles, Judas among them. A dear lady asked, without the slightest trace of irony, ‘Is Judas a saint now, too?’ My friend reassured her. Unshaken in the faith, she shrugged: ‘Oh, Father, I didn‘t know, with all the changes going on these days.’”

Before chuckling too heartily about this faux pas on the part of a Catholic lady gullible enough to believe the Establishment even when it pronounced black to be white or vice versa, let us as Protestants first put our hands in our own bosom to discover whether this leprosy may also be with us. Overawed by every dictum from the Establishment or possibly too lackadaisical to determine the white or black of a matter for themselves, the probability is that there are also among us, would-be conservatives either too docile or else too indolent and indifferent to do their own thinking. Little do they realize that they are in reality only a caricature of a conservative.

Yes, Father Maloney and I were both conservatives although we knew very well that it would be a caricature to picture us both as being in the same camp. As we met, conversed, and parted, nothing changed; he was still the conservative Catholic and I the conservative son of the Protestant Reformation.

   

In good company – Even though our primary interest here is in the bonafide conservative in religion, we recognize that there are reputable conservatives also in political, civil, social, racial and other areas. And it may help us to get the picture of the conservative in proper focus if we take a cue from the outstanding autobiography, Black and Conservative, of the well–known Negro journalist, George S. Schuyler, who spells it out as follows in the closing lines of his book:

“We are here (America) blessed with the right of mobility, the right of ownership, the privilege of privacy and development of personality, and the precious machinery of peaceful change. These gifts and gains it is the purpose of the conservative to defend and extend, lest we perish in the fell clutch of collectivism. These gifts and gains I have been trying in my small way to preserve” (italics added).

That’s it. The distinguished and clearheaded Negro journalist is right on target. A conservative, in his book, is the person who is determined to conserve, to preserve, and to keep those values or commodities that be cherishes as being non-negotiable or dearer than life itself. Even so, the religious conservative is adamant in holding on to precious convictions he has learned from the Bible as being nonnegotiable and not for sale at any price, ridicule and caricatures of himself notwithstanding. And, in this, fellow-conservatives, we are in good company.

Is there any doubt about this? It seems so. Rev. Arie G. Van Eek is the Executive Secretary of the Council of Christian Reformed Churches in Canada. In Calvinist-Contact of January 4, 1980 he is quoted as having said the following:

“The AACS (Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship) continues to be a sign of hope in a church and culture in which the forces of reaction and conservatism are very strong and present a threat to the churches” (italics added).

Two comments about this.

First, by no means everyone shares Rev. Van Eek’s confidence in the AACS as “a sign of hope” in the church. For further information on this, the reader is urged to get Some Questions and Answers about the AACS by Rev. Peter DeJong. This booklet may be ordered from Reformed Fellowship, Inc., Box 7383, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501 (1 copy 40¢ – 3 copies $1.00 – 10 copies $2.00 – 100 copies $15.00).

Second, as genuine conservatives (not the phonies as caricatured) we have good reason to believe that, as such, we are also in very good company. Consider the following:

The apostle Paul was a real conservative with no ifs, ands, or buts about it. To the Galatians Paul wrote: “But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema” (1:8, 9). That’s conservatism for you!

Jude, the brother of Jesus, was also an avowed conservative. “Beloved,” he says, “while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for that faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). And that’s militant conservatism!

Moreover, it was Jesus Himself who had this message for the church in Thyatira and for us also: “Nevertheless that which ye have, hold fast till I come” (Rev. 2:25). The authentic conservative is in the good company of the Lord Himself, than which, to be sure, there is none better.

Finally, the Bible itself demands that we be conservatives in our acceptance of and commitment to it in toto. “I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book.” says our Lord, “If any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto him the plagues which are written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book” (Rev. 22:18, 19). And that’s clear enough.

It would seem to be a work of supererogation to adduce still more evidence t hat, as genuine conservatives, we are in company of which we certainly need not be ashamed.

Recent voices from Canada Calvinist Contact is a weekly journal emanating from St. Catharines, Ontario. Obviously, it is widely read by CRC members north of the border and also by a number of interested members in the States. Recently voices have been appearing in this publication about the good or the bad of being a conservative in the church, and it was this material that triggered my writing something on “Caricature of a Conservative.”

In the January 4, 1980 issue of Calvinist Contact already mentioned. Rev. Arie G. Van Eek, Executive Secretary of the Council of Christian Reformed Churches in Canada, is quoted as having said: “The AACS continues to be a sign of hope in a church and culture in which the voices of reaction and conservatism are very strong and present a threat to the churches” (italics added). In the February 15 issue of the CC Rev. Gregg V. Martin, CRC minister at Dunnville, Ontario takes exception to Van Eek’s charge. The latter , says Martin, has given him “private assurance . . . that he did not refer to conservatism in the sense of doctrine, but rather in the sense of an attitude of extreme traditionalism and backwardness.”

It is difficult, if not impossible, to believe that Van Eek. in his responsible position in the CRC in Canada, do es not know that there are in the denomination responsible and articulate conservatives who do not deserve and emphatically repudiate being classified with those who cling to “extreme traditionalism and backwardness.” As the controversy between conservatives and liberals in the CRC goes on (e.g. about our view of the Bible) let us lean over backward lest we misrepresent each other. It will only tend to make matters worse instead of better if we fabricate caricatures instead of presenting accurate pictures of each other.

To set the record straight over against Rev. Van Eek’s misguided and deplorable utterances about the conservatives, Calvinist Contact of February 22, 1980, carried an outstanding letter over the signature of H. Nymeyer on behalf of the Board of Reformed Fellowship of Canada, Inc. This letter is so well–written and so much to-the–point that we take the liberty of quoting from it liberally to further clarify who and what bona-fide conservatives among us really are and to repudiate any and every caricature of them. The letter states:

“We would . . . inform the readers of Calvinist Contact that the undersigned, The Reformed Fellowship of Canada, is an association of concerned, orthodox, conservative, Reformed people, who react to the inroads of liberalism, subjectivism and all attacks on the Holy Scriptures and are then presumably the type of people to which Rev. Van Eek, in his statement refers.

“We call ourselves conservative, but we retain the right to define that word ourselves. We want to conserve the heritage God has given us through our fathers. We believe that God has been true to His promise that He would lead His church into all the truth. We would conserve it.

“We want to conserve the confessions of the churches as living confessions for all of life . . .

“We want to conserve the biblical traditions of the fathers. Not simply because they are traditions. We want to conserve them because our God told us to grow this way (Prov. 1 ff) . . .

“We intend to speak out and react unequivocally against liberalism wherever it raises its head. We intend to speak out against the cry of the radically new which finds its justification only in its newness. We believe that all the new must stand the test of intense criticism. We intend to speak out against all attacks on the Bible. Not that the Bible needs defending, but the adherence of God’s people to the Bible must be defended at all costs.

“If any of the above represents a hindrance or threat to the churches, we invite Rev. Van Eek (personally or officially as executive secretary of the CCRCC) to point these out for us.”

We thank Mr. Nymeyer and the Reformed Fellowship of Canada for this piece of clear thinking.

And we would urge Rev. Van Eek and his likeminded associates to give this their most careful and charitable consideration.

And, from our side of the border, we would also add to it a hearty Amen!