There Is Only One Explanation

Wednesday, April 1, 2026

On Monday I learned that Politico, which I do not read unless someone else tells me there is something I ought to look at, is deeply antisemitic.  The current rise of antisemitism in our culture is deeply troubling.  It is a portent of problems far deeper than any government policy or stance.  We sacrificed so much to overcome the ugly antisemitism that was the Nazis.  We worked so hard to overcome the racism that defined this nation for so long.  How could we slip back into it?

Well, for one thing we have continued to fight a battle long ago won.  Institutions were founded to fight against antisemitism and racism and those institutions need to continue to justify their existence.  And so the institutions kept expanding the definition of those attitudes so they continued to have something to fight.  This is especially true when it comes to issues of race in this country.  The demands for reparations and other such nonsense are simple a step too far.  Resentment and backlash become inevitable.  What is sad to me is that those unreasonable demands are symptomatic of the same illness that generated the racism and antisemitism to begin with.

The new Archbishop of Canterbury in the U.K. is quite controversial –  mostly because she is quite liberal.  There has been a slew of commentary in opposition to her appointment.  Perhaps my favorite of such commentaries I have encountered is this one containing this passage:

The genius of tabloid headline-writers has much in common with those old posters called Wayside Pulpit. I was once brought rudely awake by one which boasted in bright red letters:

THIS CHURCH FOR SINNERS ONLY.

Not just clever but true. There is more authentic Christianity in those five words than in many a five hours’ sermonising. The self-proclaimed devout award themselves brownie points for merely turning up at church, for gracing the place with their presence. But they don’t notice how much they resemble the hypocrites Christ dismissed as blind guides and whited sepulchres.

And later this:

Technically, in the jargon, this thing that’s the matter with me is called Original Sin. Forget gardens and apples and snakes in the grass and something that gets passed on like flu. St Paul tells it as it is: ‘The thing I would not, that I do; and what I would, I do not.’

There you have it: the Christian definition of human nature in 15 words of one syllable. Even Sarah Mullally could hardly fail to understand them. St Paul does what he knows is wrong and he doesn’t do what’s right. So do I and so do you. And if we deny this, we are neurotically or psychotically deceiving ourselves and in need of help from the men – or women, of course – in white coats.

So-called Original Sin is simply the reality principle based on our own realistic, sane and indubitable experience. Bishop David Jenkins – an old friend and sparring-partner of mine – called it the buggeration factor.

Modern liberal thought does not account for the simple fact that, as Paul put it, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Hence we see the old hate-filled attitudes like antisemitism and racism return.  For things to work right and well, we have to guard not just against, “them,” but against ourselves and our own nature.

I do miss the church in the public square.