A Short Note to My Readers

This time of year is always family time -- it seems we are a tribe of Leos. At any rate, I have been glorying in the joys of spending time with all my cubs and grandcubs, against which the need for blogging has paled into insignificance.

There is a new decision by the Indiana Supreme Court which needs to be brought to your attention, because it will give hope to all the beleaguered Episcopalians in that State (other than those in the Diocese of Northern Indiana, under the orthodoxy of the Rt. Rev. Edward S. Little) that the Dennis Canon has no self-effectuating power there to rob them of their parish property. I shall expound upon its details and consequences, trust me [no pun, naturally, unintended], in due course.

Another factor contributing to my recent reticence is a rediscovery of the apologetic masterpieces of Gilbert Keith Chesterton -- who, I must acknowledge, would not approve of curmudgeonry for its own sake (that is, using your own debating skills in a contest to vanquish one's adversaries in a flourish of logic and rhetoric).

Chesterton achieved far more by being charitable and respectful to his opponents. He accepted their outlandish and anthropocentric premises at face value, and then proceeded to demolish them by invoking little more than man's innate wit and crowning common sense. Since both of those formidable weapons derive ultimately from God's having created man in His own image, his adversaries (being men themselves) could neither refute, nor credibly deny, what Chesterton wrote -- without, at the same time, negating their own humanity.

His acceptance of his opponents as full equals disarmed them so much, for instance, that neither George Bernard Shaw nor H. G. Wells ever quite realized it when he had severed their respective heads from their respective necks (rhetorically speaking). Instead, they each went right on being the best of comrades with him -- "arguing, but never quarreling" -- with Chesterton, to be sure, enjoying all the best arguments.

In my future posts here, I shall endeavor greatly to follow G.K.'s incomparable precept -- which stems  (as I believe) from his unshakable faith in the eternal wisdom that underlies a child's native innocence. Indeed, my recent wonderful time spent with my grandchildren has reinforced my conviction that Chesterton, though without offspring, had grasped the abiding truth in our Lord's example, and likewise delighted in the gifts that little children so freely offer to us.

Although I can never be as prolific as he was, I have hopes that I may yet, even at this late stage, be of witness to the glorious and faithful Christian example which he did his utmost to sustain and continue.