During William F. Buckley's memorialmass the strains of "He Who Would Valiant Be" echoed off theresplendent sanctuary walls of St. Patrick's Cathedral. In anincisive and eloquent new tome on the religious life of the conservative icon, thealways captivating Jeremy Lott reveals just how tailor-made JohnBunyan's hymn -- There's no discouragement shall make himrelent/His first avowed intent to be a pilgrim...No foes shall stayhis might/Though he with giants fight -- was to the man itthat day exalted.
Lott was kind enough to speak to TAS about hisWilliam F. Buckley, Christian encounters, and why,perhaps, this pilgrim should also be considered aprophet.
TAS: Whatwas the most enlightening bit you unearthed researching and writingthis book?
Jeremy Lott: William F.Buckley Jr. tried to take over three existing publications beforehe launched National Review. Two of the magazines wereobvious choices: Human Events and The Freeman.The third was the liberal Catholic magazine Commonweal.Now, Commonweal is just a baffling choice -- insane,really -- unless you consider just how much Buckley's conservatismwas a product of his religion.
TAS:Obviously, Buckley lived an epic life, and I lovedhow you used the idea of him as a prophet -- or a "very OldTestament sort of believer" who was "motivated to inveigh" to drivethe narrative. In writing the book, how important was this epiphanyfor you?
Lott: Very. The series thatthis biography is part of, the Christian Encounters series, eventually decided to do withoutsubtitles, so it may be less obvious at first glance. The workingtitle was William F. Buckley: In theWilderness.
TAS:Considering his penchant for vocal defiance, fearlesstake-all-comers attitude, and visionary foresight, were you at alltempted to see him instead as a Daniel-type figure in a time of"progressive" lions?
Lott: Hmm. Buckley could befearless about confronting people. When he was a student, hebasically invented the role of the campus right-wing radical. Hewrote his first book, God and Man at Yale, while he wasemployed by the university as a Spanish instructor and training tobe an agent in the CIA. And he didn't just challenge liberalism, heridiculed it and turned it into a swear word. A lot of progressiveshated him for that.
At the same time, his magazine in the early days refusedto go along with Republican Party orthodoxy. It didn't endorseEisenhower in 1956 or Nixon in 1960, for instance, and it agitatedfor the nomination of Barry Goldwater in 1964 even though Goldwaterwasn't likely to win the presidency.
TAS: Isthere any way to examine Buckley the consequential figure withoutexamining the religious aspect of his life?
Lott: I suppose it could bedone, but not done well. Some commentators today try to use Buckleyas a bludgeon to beat conservative Christians with. To use a veryun-Buckley-ite phrase, that's just crazy talk.
TAS: Youpaint a moving portrait of Buckley's last days, of his indifferenceto clinging to the corporeal world beyond his time, which boldlyhighlights the depth of his faith. I wonder how important you feltthis material was to the book.
Lott: I think it wasnecessary. One of the editors wanted me come up with a finalparagraph or two to tie a bow on the book, but I thought hisfuneral was the right place to end it. We compromised by moving thefurther readings section right next to the last chapter.
TAS: Whatis the biggest misconception concerning Buckley'sfaith?
Lott: There are a lot ofthem. Some people viewed Buckley as more Catholic than the pope.Conservative Catholics sometimes call him a liberal or "cafeteriaCatholic." Both views are wrong. Buckley was an ordinary, faithfulCatholic who accepted but struggled with some of the teachings ofhis Church. Also, his forbears had been Irish Protestants, and hewas pretty ecumenical. God and Man at Yale was a call forhis alma mater to reassert its Christian identity, its veryProtestant Christian identity.
Letter to the Editor
Shawn Macomber is a contributing editor to The American Spectator.
It's a shame not one writer at NR or AS is 1/100 as talented asWFB.
Well, I have a standing offer to write for both publications.They haven't called me that I know of, but I've been having phoneproblems lately.
"Hard to say but maybe the Tea Party will make a dent. Buckleyonce said that he'd rather be governed by the first 2,000 names ofthe Boston phonebook than by the entire faculty of Harvard. Itlooks like we're about to see how that works out."
What are you suggesting here? Do I detect a note ofeast-coast-ivy-league elitism here?
Buckley was a eloquent voice in the wilderness for conservatismdeserving praise, but he is not above criticism. He created a finemagazine, written by true intellectuals, but subsequently permittedit to be hijacked by big-government, nation-building neo-cons andintellectual lightweights. Toward the end of his life he concededthat Iraq was a mistake, but he never expressed remorse for thefine Catholics and colleagues that he betrayed. One can have adifference of opinion without vilifying and slandering fellowconservatives. Sadly, National Review is now but a shell of itsformer glory.
So true, so many conservatives today feel Buckley was a sellout.I noticed the change at National Review. When I first startedreading it, I coud'nt wait for it to come & devoured it in oneday(this was in 92), by 2005 the Magizine bored me, I finallycanceled it, it lost it's edge. I finally found out why when Idiscovered Vdare.com. Buckley betrayed alot of people. I now depisethe man !
Looks okay to me, and I've been reading it since its first issuein 1955. It's still the best rag of its kind in the country, and Ihave to keep tabs on more than 30 for the work I do.
WFB. A man who had the image of being an early riser, that wayhe could sleep in until 11:00. Pro-life, anti-communist, andpro-business. Anything else could be sent down the river. If youwant what "National Review" claims to be, then try the John BirchSociety's "New American".
Oh. I was wondering where all these sour notes were coming from.Thanks for the clarification. Ah well, as Buckley himself wouldprobably have said, De gustibus non disputandum est.
A hymn by a Bunyan, a Baptist, sung at a "memorial mass" in themodernist St Patrick's Cathedral. Good grief.
Am I the only one who remembers that WFB said the Iraq war was afailure? Prophet? Yeah, sure.
As one who personally attended many WFB speaking events over theyears, especially his later years, read almost everything he everwrote, and I loved his TV persona; I came to admire the mangreatly. He could in a single moment be polite, candid, andin-your-face confrontational. He could tell you to go to hell insuch a manner that you'd be happily looking forward to the trip.His gifts were enormous.
I think it remains to be seen if the Iraq war was a success or afailure. Although the president has declared an end to combatoperations in Iraq, we still have approximately 50,000 troopsexpending ammo in vast amounts daily. It's just too early totell.
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