At a casual glance, it appears that today’s progressivism is largely driven by older generations. Grey-haired protestors glue themselves to motorways, and tubby vicars with hearing aids revel in all the ways a man can pretend to be a woman. This poses an immediate challenge to a young person with a conservative bent. His instinct, indeed his principle, is to listen to and respect his elders; but many of those elders despise all that he holds dear.
There are two directions he may take from here. One is to capitulate, to say that perhaps our elders do represent true conservatism and that we should follow them. The other is to rebel, wrenching our ideas of community, virtue and religion from the moorings of a decadent past, and to carve a new path of ‘based’ populism or anarchy.
As Christians, however, we have a surer guide by the name of orthodoxy. When we hold to the doctrines that have been passed down through the ages, we honour our elders truly. We listen to all those who have gone before us, not merely those still on earth; we listen to those saints most worthy of our respect; and we listen above all to the Ancient of Days himself.
We do not adopt an attitude of youthful arrogance. It is not that I know better than a seventy year-old, but that a 170 year-old knows better than him. Indeed, we do listen to the seventy year-old as one more voice in the great Democracy of the Living and the Dead. Note, though, that the society about which we are most concerned is not a democracy but a monarchy. Its king is Jesus Christ, its statues are written in Holy Scripture and its people are those born of the Holy Spirit. This is more than the testimony of age; it is the testimony of eternity. Outside of this sovereignty a man’s voice carries little worth. We are not compelled to listen to a blasphemer.
Nor do we live in thrall to those two or three generations above us. Instead, we take our place in the long line of generations that come and go as the flowers of the field. The value of age is to provide a mature and wise link from the past to the future, and faithfulness is its lifeblood. When this role is abandoned, when a man absents himself from the stewardship of truth, he relinquishes honour. But when this happens, the game is not up. We should endeavour all the more to repair the broken link, to grow into roles of responsibility as men and women of courage and faith. It will be on us one day to pass on the treasure of orthodoxy.
We stand on the green footslopes of a tall mountain. To the extent that they remain obedient servants, our elders do stand above us. Let us be thankful for them and listen to them, as they are the ones God has placed in immediate proximity to us. But as we look up to them, we see stretching high above a throng of saints and martyrs, prophets and apostles. They sing one song, united by the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God the Father, as the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. In him may we stand with humility and with courage.
The Second Discourseman
The Four Discoursemen 