Entropy on the Right

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church, the fourth largest cathedral in the world, and unfinished. Begun in 1892, it is now more of an exhibition hall than a gathering place for Christians. Given the rate of decline of the Episcopal Church, once called the Republican Party at prayer, it can safely be written that the last Episcopalian has been born in the United States.

Progressive denominations like the Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church USA, United Church of Christ, and others went searching for relevance in the present age and left behind Christendom. They are now the most rapidly declining church denominations in the United States. In 1999, Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong wrote Why Christianity Must Change or Die, and every theologically progressive denomination that embraced change has begun dying. In 2000, the average national Sunday attendance of the Episcopal Church was 856,579 congregants. By 2030, attendance is projected to be 350,000.

Often attributed to historian Robert Conquest, but definitely connected to Margaret Thatcher’s former speechwriter and National Review editor-at-large John O’Sullivan, Sullivan’s First Law (perhaps Conquest’s second law) states, “All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing.” Combine O’Sullivan’s law with Rudolf Clausius’s statement on the second law of thermodynamics that, “The energy of the universe is constant. The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum,” which means the universe heads to disorder. We get a picture of institutions which, when not led by those committed to the founding orthodoxy, head slowly to disordered irrelevance. That, unfortunately, leads me to the Heritage Foundation.

In 1993, Margaret Thatcher raised one of her favorite quotes from 19th-century French politician Alexandre Ledru-Rollin at the Fraser Institute, “There go my people. I must find out where they are going so that I can lead them.” She then said, “Well we didn't start that way. We knew where we were going, we knew the reason why, and we were prepared to persevere until the policies showed good results. The other thing that I find, is that your commentators are all sold on the idea that politics is the art of the possible. Now my friends, if you take that view in any sphere of life, you will soon lower your sights as to what is possible.” The Iron Lady, for whom the Heritage Foundation has a floor in her honor, would undoubtedly be as perplexed by the institution’s recent behavior as I am.

Paul Weyrich, Ed Feulner, and Joseph Coors founded the Heritage Foundation in 1973 as Republican President Richard Nixon embraced progressive causes like price controls, environmental zealotry, and a host of other big government ideas. They were willing to challenge the GOP from the right and led to the Reagan Revolution of 1980.

The Heritage Foundation’s “mission is to formulate and promote public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.” It seems that embracing the fierce urgency of the populist zeitgeist of now is now its mission.

The Heritage Foundation is openly advocating for Robert F. Kenney, Jr. to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. That advocacy includes using donor money to fund an ad campaign for Kennedy. Kennedy is both pro-abortion and pro-government-funded national healthcare. He supports aggressive government, not limited government. He is not a champion of individual freedom but has long favored a robust nanny state. He is anathema to traditional American values. He is, after all, a Kennedy. His worldview is more at home with the Nixon Administration than the institution Weyrich, Feulner, and Coors founded.

But we are in a populist moment with a populist, not conservative, President, and the Heritage Foundation seems to want a seat at the table more than to guide conservative orthodoxy when it is out of favor. As Thatcher would recognize, its people have gone to populism so it must find out where they are going so that it can lead. Populist institutions and movements embrace indispensable men and collapse when those men and movements inevitably succumb to entropic forces. Conservative institutions know no man is indispensable and certainly should know a progressive with a leftwing worldview in charge of the largest portion of the federal budget is a bad idea.

Ed Feulner, the first Heritage Foundation President, explained worldview to me as a young conservative and why it matters in those we place in positions of power. The Apostle Paul admonished early Christians not to place new converts into positions of power. The Heritage Foundation seems to think Kennedy is a new convert, to which they should listen to Paul. But Kennedy’s long held worldview is anathema to Heritage’s printed mission, to which they should defer to Feulner.

Sadly, the Heritage Foundation seems to have deferred to entropy and O’Sullivan’s law. Last year, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine allowed tightrope walkers to stage a circus in order to be relevant to the present age. It is now just a real estate proposition, not a monument to Christian values. One must wonder if the Heritage Foundation can so easily abandon its conservative convictions for fleeting populism, how soon will the rest of the circus follow in behind the clowns? At least the real estate is worth something.