Remedy in a Eulogy
David French
January 1, 1999
The Culture War. The mere sight of those words on a page arouses a variety of knee-jerk reactions within all of us. Whatever your perspective, there can be little question that one result of this "war" has been a fundamental transformation in how America views people of faith. No longer the guardians of the sacred, we have degenerated into a special interest—just another voice in the cacophony of pluralistic democracy. This bill will appease environmentalists, but could anger the Christian Right. The Christian Coalition is seeking to defeat the proposal, but the National Council of Churches is putting out a statement of support. We have adopted an us-against-them mentality and responded by creating, in essence, a culture within a culture. We view public schools and their leaders with distrust and contempt, so we pull out of public education. We despise the state of popular culture, so we roundly condemn it and make up our own. We hate the "Northeastern elite" so we deride and avoid their institutions. In so doing, we marginalize ourselves to such an extent that even the most faithful life is often lived completely out of sight of those we most wish to affect. We have allowed ourselves to become a caricature. The damage to Christendom is vast, but not irreparable. Change can and must come. However, I submit that change can come, not from looking forward to wholly new strategies and methods, but instead by looking to the past—by following, in part, the example of the Christian generation that came before us. On Monday evening, November 9, 1998, one of the most remarkable women I have ever known died. She was my grandmother, Ruth B. French. She lived most of her life in two small towns that you have never heard of—Lexington, Tennessee, ...
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