When the matter to be conserved is questionable

Recently, voices in the Netherlands have suggested that it is time to start a Christian conservative movement.

Starting a Christian conservative movement — is that really wise?

It depends on what is meant by Christian conservative.

If it refers to what has been blowing over from America and has already taken firm root in our own country—offensive, (far-)right-wing politics, profit for the sake of profit, unrestrained economic growth, blindness to history (let alone any desire to learn from it), and “our own people first”—then I would not want to be associated with it in the slightest. It stands miles apart from what it means to be a follower of Jesus, or at least to stand for the values, norms, and behaviours that Jesus of Nazareth embodied and inspired his followers to imitate. That is a different kind of Christian conservatism, one that emerged soon after the birth of the church and grew over the centuries into a stain of considerable size, standing in stark contrast to the Light of Christ.

Activism or?

The growth of the church in the first 350 years was not the result of activism, political influence, or a strategic plan.

Alan Kreider (The Patient Ferment of the Early Church) investigated why Christianity grew so rapidly in its first four centuries, despite persecution, marginality, and the absence of missionary strategies. His conclusion is surprising: patience was the core of the early church’s appeal and strength. No plan, no movement, no agenda other than a habitus: a way of life that was visible, attractive, and radically different from Roman culture.

Even if Christian conservatism were to be associated with this habitus, there would still be no need to establish a movement. In fact, doing so would contradict the very idea of habitus! The habitus itself is the movement, quietly doing its patient work in every imaginable social, societal, and political sphere.