Piddingworth Greg Benton |
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| 'Piddingworth...where St. George's Cross is not yet banned.' --Mark Steyn |
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| Live as free people, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God. (1Peter 2) |
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| Some years ago, a dear Jewish friend of mine, a very successful lawyer, came with his wife for dinner at our place. He remarked, as he viewed the 'rogues gallery' of many old photographs that ascended the long staircase, 'You are so lucky, my friend'. How's that? 'I would do anything to be able to show my family like this'. He explained that he felt in some way 'impoverished' by the lack of possession of his own family's 'archives'. It wasn't intentional, of course. A man of considerable means, he possessed many fine paintings and artifacts in his residences that most people couldn't afford. Yes, if his family's photographic history was available, he would buy it in second. The problem is that, in his case, his family's photos, keepsakes, treasures and the like, have all gone to dust; for his Polish Jewish family was snuffed out by the Nazis; their ashes scattered at Auschwitz; their history vanished. At each of our photographs he asked 'And who is this? What were they like? Where did they live? Is this your mother's or your father's side? He commented on their appearance or their age and resemblances. He particularly liked the old oval portrait of Ernie Leonard, my grandfather, in his uniform; a photograph that held the place of honour in the family home since the 'Great War'. Where was he from? What action did he see? And so on. It's not that my friend didn't have a family 'tradition' to display but that to access what belongs to him, those things of the past that contributed to his life now is something of a challenge. He must reach beyond his immediate past and learn more of his ancient past as a Hebrew and as a Jew of the diaspora. Having avoided for years since the second world war, a visit to Poland, his family's village and particularly to Auschwitz, it was quite moving when he finally decided to 'face' the wall of his own past and consequentially himself and view the 'staircase' that history had tragically built for him. Although our cultural and religious and geographic histories are very different, we remain, at the foundation of our human identity, very much the same. We both possess a 'past' that informs who we are now. Both are treasured; even though one is more readily seen than the other. This is true for all of us. We are all born into the Tradition. By contrast, there are many who through ignorance or avoidance are deliberately dismissive of their past, their family history (including all the inevitable warts). 'We don't live in the past' is a common refrain,i.e., it is meaningless and not worthy of their thought, time or money as they pursue the 'more important' things of the present or what someone called in the '60's, 'the eternal Now'. It's very much the latest this or that, following the whims of fashion and fads and the ever-changing, ever-shallow material pursuit for the things that do not last and will never be treasured; their brief 'legacy' easily discarded and forgotten box in the attic or basement or the trash bin when the 'shine' disappears. The legacy of all of our pasts to which the photographs and keepsakes serve as a reminder, belong to a common and living tradition where the 'voices' of the people themselves: our parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, clans, and communities can, if we listen, still be heard. Their lives, their loves, their dreams, their sufferings and their deeds all live, to varying degrees, within each of us; we share the DNA of course, but also those things that they have passed on to us: our faith and morality, embraced or not; similarly, our manners, the stuff we eat and the way we eat it, the language we speak and the way we say things. We are the living consequence of those who have gone before. Our descendants will, in turn, become the testimony to that which we have given them. It is the patrimony of human tradition that extends from a time more than long ago to a time more than what lies ahead. We were not conceived in a 'neutral, purposeless vacuum' but in the womb of a nurturing, deeply-layered, enveloping and creative succession of incarnate souls. From them, we are the beneficiaries of the collective wisdom that has endured and will, by grace, continue to endure for the sake, not only of ourselves, for the well-being and hope that is the destiny of all humanity' our 'neighbour', near and far away, long past and not yet born. Jaroslav Pelikan's observation that 'Tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living' speaks to the confusion that so many in this generation have about 'the past'. The 'traditionalist' generally succombs to the illusion that our world, our lives, are ideally confined within the fashion of a certain, prescribed period of time and eschews anything 'new' or anything 'different'. I think that this is akin to the much-hyped 'progressive', the dominant faux-identity of contemporary culture; where all things past are filed under 'patriarchal oppression' or some other such construct and adheres to all things new and different, particularly as they express an ideology. 'I change, therefore I am'. (See Obama). Years ago, a jovial Dominican Friar, clothed in his mediaeval Dominican habit, once said to me: 'Benton, you belong in the British Museum!' He was commenting on my defence of the 'good' that came of the British Empire, i.e., the enormous advance of civilisation, culture, Christianity, et al. I was not, at the time, arrayed in the 19thc.dress uniform of the 17th Lancers of the kind that one might find in the museum. He misconstrued the embrace of the fundamental rights of man, Magna Carta, Wilberforce, Missionary zeal, Parliament, democracy, freedom, and so on, as somehow being 'old-fashioned' with the fantasy of having a gin & tonic at the interval of a polo match in India.. Some would say, and I would not, that it is the Friar who really belongs in a museum! the Tradition that lives for the living has it's own progressive nature; but not in the sense that the Marxist-inspired liberal left regards 'progression'. The Tradition of our civilisation, like that of the Sacred Tradition of the Church, moves and grows through time and generations in a natural manner that builds and reveals it's very unchanging nature and truth. Our society was not always 'free' in the sense that we have been able to know it in the past few centuries. Yet, the Tradition itself,rooted in natural law and the God who is the source of our freedom, did not 'invent' our freedom to speak, to believe, to choose, or to live but reflects that which is from the beginning and is directed toward it's proper 'end'. The authentic Tradition does not contradict itself; neither does it serve the temptations of worldly power. Perverse notions as 'same-sex marriage', eugenics, alternate-current sexuality, euthanasia, the killing of the unborn, and all manner of politically-correct ordinances are innovations that spring from the 'mind of now' without reference to the source or the end of things. Of course, in an age of atheism, apostasy and the popularisation of vulgarity in the public square, it is not surprising that these things have become 'mainstream' when but a generation or two ago they weren't fit to discuss in most circumstances; perhaps with the exception of the Fabians and their ilk of the 'intellectual set'; all inspired by their Soviet Socialist comrades. Just as 'traditionalist style' is nothing without the substance of 'Tradition', so 'progressive style' is nothing because it has no real substance. The only 'Change We Can Really Believe In' is that which is rooted in authentic Tradition. When women finally 'won' their civil right to vote in the early 20th century it was a change that reflected the truth within the Tradition concerning justice and the dignity of human beings. It's worthiness rests, not on the whims of an ideology, but within creation itself and God's good purpose. Similarly with those rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights and those of Magna Carta. Legitimate Civil Rights are consistent with and a reflection of Human Rights and Human Rights only exist because of the Natural Law which transcends both political parties and collectivist workshops. Slavery in our civilisation is rightly regarded as an abomination, not because the 'system' wasn't efficient or that it afforded the slaves bed and breakfast, or even because so many slave-owners were cruel, but because it denied those human beings their fundamental human right of freedom. Those very 'lifestyles' and behaviour that are so readily accepted as the 'norm' today, e.g., shacking up, promiscuity, same-sex stuff, snuffing out innocent life, and the like have existed within sub-cultures of one form or another through many ages. It's just that they always were and still are outside the progression of civilised Tradition for mankind. I worry a little for those so-called 'traditionalist Anglicans' who are seeking refuge from the apostasy and derangement of much of the Anglican Communion. Many are seeking union with Rome in a provision that would allow them to continue to worship and practise the faith according to the 'traditional' Anglo-Catholic manner. Surely they must realise that the Tradition of the Church is primarily a matter of substance where the 'style' that expresses it follows the embrace of the Catholic Faith itself. Leaving the C of E because of the notion of women as bishops or priests or because of the promotion of homosexuality is insufficient in itself. In my own case, it was the gradual recognition of the truth proclaimed by the Catholic Church and of the essential and necessary authority of Peter that convinced me to leave a community that I have loved but that had turned itself away from the Tradition. Of course, one misses all that beautiful music and liturgy but that is not the substance of our Christian vocation in Christ. It is similarly regrettable that there are those in the Catholic Church who by their words and deeds have reduced 'their' Church to a universal, Marxist, Charitable and Political Action Agency. It's been a 'kumbaya' overload since Vatican II. Relying on the socialist construct, their 'liberating work' has become isolated or divorced from the all-embracing Mission of the Church to proclaim and sanctify as well as serve 'the least of these our brothers and sisters'. Even if we have 'lost' all of our own family's history or, indeed, never knew it and know nothing of our past, we remain inheritors in our common culture as well as humanity, of the enduring Tradition that will always guide us and enrich our lives. If the Church in which we were baptised and to which we have given our service and support becomes estranged from that which we were taught from the beginning and seeks to serve something other than that which we believe and know to be true, we remain open to living a full Christian life through a Tradition that has and will continue to withstand all the 'progressive' falsehoods that will perish in due course. |
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| E.M. Leonard |