Some of us here at Catholic Arena were among those who were recently invited to attend the Jordan Peterson led ARC Conference in London.
The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship has numerous other high profile conservatives on its organising committee, but the event is ultimately synonymous with the presence and work of Dr.Peterson.
Overall, the three days in London can only be considered a success on behalf of the organisers, the speakers and those in attendance. To connect such disparate voices, from such distinct fields as business, the arts and politics, was its own success.
Was there one clear message from the event? Was there one over arching theme? Most of the attendees that we spoke too argued that they could not decipher an answer to those questions, due in part to the very wide variety of topics covered by the eclectic mix of speakers. Nonetheless, most were in agreement that the ability to bring such voices together was an achievement and they also agreed that the event brought to light the need for Western Civilisation to recover some sense of urgency with regards to moral legitimacy and in a rediscovering of its ‘Judeo-Christian’ (as many speakers called it) underpinnings.
The opening speech by Jordan Peterson was a broad call to arms, focusing on how the West has lost its sense of self and needs to be recovered.
Kevin McCarthy followed with what could not be termed a ‘conservative’ speech, but rather a neoconservative rallying cry of war, against the ‘enemies of freedom’. Sure, some conservatives will have found it electric to whoop to calls for shows of force against Russia, Hamas and Iran (and the rest), but it felt jarring as a Catholic to be present for a 2003 style ‘you’re with us or against us’ manifesto.
A panel featuring Ayaan Hirsi Ali followed, during which the rhetoric of impending war between the ‘Judeo-Christian’ West and the Muslim world became more incendiary. She spoke of the ‘evil’ of 100,000 marching in London for Palestine and she told the audience that ‘they will behead your babies’.
Interestingly, given her history of atheism after being raised Muslim, she spoke of the importance of cultural Christianity in opposing the ideologies of progressivism and of Islam. She has since followed this up with an article entitled ‘Why I am now a Christian’, in which she writes:
As Tom Holland has shown in his marvellous book Dominion, all sorts of apparently secular freedoms — of the market, of conscience and of the press — find their roots in Christianity.
And so I have come to realise that Russell and my atheist friends failed to see the wood for the trees. The wood is the civilisation built on the Judeo-Christian tradition; it is the story of the West, warts and all. Russell’s critique of those contradictions in Christian doctrine is serious, but it is also too narrow in scope.
The article continues to give all of the cultural reasons for which she feels a new found affinity for Christianity, writing:
Russell and other activist atheists believed that with the rejection of God we would enter an age of reason and intelligent humanism. But the “God hole” — the void left by the retreat of the church — has merely been filled by a jumble of irrational quasi-religious dogma. The result is a world where modern cults prey on the dislocated masses, offering them spurious reasons for being and action — mostly by engaging in virtue-signalling theatre on behalf of a victimised minority or our supposedly doomed planet. The line often attributed to G.K. Chesterton has turned into a prophecy: “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.”
In this nihilistic vacuum, the challenge before us becomes civilisational. We can’t withstand China, Russia and Iran if we can’t explain to our populations why it matters that we do. We can’t fight woke ideology if we can’t defend the civilisation that it is determined to destroy. And we can’t counter Islamism with purely secular tools. To win the hearts and minds of Muslims here in the West, we have to offer them something more than videos on TikTok.
The lesson I learned from my years with the Muslim Brotherhood was the power of a unifying story, embedded in the foundational texts of Islam, to attract, engage and mobilise the Muslim masses. Unless we offer something as meaningful, I fear the erosion of our civilisation will continue. And fortunately, there is no need to look for some new-age concoction of medication and mindfulness. Christianity has it all.
That is why I no longer consider myself a Muslim apostate, but a lapsed atheist. Of course, I still have a great deal to learn about Christianity. I discover a little more at church each Sunday. But I have recognised, in my own long journey through a wilderness of fear and self-doubt, that there is a better way to manage the challenges of existence than either Islam or unbelief had to offer.
The reaction to the article has been mixed at best, with atheists expressing outrage at her apostasy from anti belief while some Christians are dismissive of what appears to be a conversion of the mind but not of the heart, yet it is certainly encouraging and certainly a positive fruit of the conference that it came so soon after the ARC Conference itself. Onstage at the conference, she even declared that Richard Dawkins was in essence a ‘Christian’.
Two decades on from the heyday of the New Atheism, it is certainly interesting to see the direction that many of its most prominent proponents have taken.
Listening to public speeches such as these, it was an unusual position for a Catholic to be in, were those Catholics present trying to find their position in a wider cultural Christian conservative milieu or was it the other way around, non Catholics and non Christians trying to find their place in the Western cultural tradition which is inherently Catholic in thought and spirit.
One interesting example of this was the panel discussion that involved Mary Harrington and Louise Perry.
Both women discussed the effects of the sexual revolution on women. Harrington refers to the Birth Control Pill as the beginning of Transhumanism, something that Pope Paul VI warned about in Humanae Vitae of course. Louise Perry discussed how men were the winners of the sexual revolution, while the losers were children. As a segment, it was one of the highlights of the week, informed by and informing Catholics present. Informed by, as mentioned , because of the social teaching of the church and informing because it presented a compelling new way of speaking about these issues, if even for the reason that it was speaking them as self evident truths rather than as rules to be followed or dogmas to be adhered to, spoken with a collective regret of social misadventure rather than with the foreboding warnings that are often rejected by the world'.
Their conversation is really worth considering listening to:
There were many similar talks along these lines that affirmed what seem to us like obvious truths as Catholics, but which presented them from other perspectives, whether it be a feminist one like the aforementioned one or from those who talked about the need for holistic approaches to education, for the importance of the stable family unit and for ethical businesses who treat their workers and societies in a just fashion.
Of the remaining talks, three in particular stand out.
One was Bishop Robert Barron, who spoke of Aquinas and of the nature of freedom, of how morality crafts a structure upon it that in turn grants us true freedom.
It was remarkable for its measured nature compared to many other speakers, with Jonathan Pageau pointing out that Barron had come like a ‘wrecking ball’ speaking about God and Aquinas at a conference where euphemisms were used such as ‘the common good’ in place of God.
Another important Catholic moment was when Eduardo Verastegui (Director of Sound of Freedom) spoke of his recent success at the Box Office. In the midst of questioning, he lifted his Rosary and told the audience (many of whom were from the Anglo Protestant world) of how he prays it each day.
The simplicity of his confidence and devotion was inspiring, in particular for its contrast with those who were projecting false notions of strength in comparison to Islam, wokeism and nihilism. Here was an Irish American bishop preaching Aquinas and a Mexican holding up his Rosary to 1,500 world figures in London in 2023. No panic, no neurosis, no existential crisis, just confidence and trust in the faith that God is in control.
This was something that was at the heart of the Catholic presence at the event, from Mass prior to speeches in the mornings at a nearby church to conversations during the evening proceedings, there was a sense of joy compared to others who at times often felt a cultural weight upon their shoulders. That is not to dismiss others, but rather to say that as much as we can learn from their more effective manner of engaging with the culture, they in part could gleam some of these aspects from our faith.
The inter connectedness of those seeking beauty, truth and justice in this world is such that it can bring us closer together if we are searching for the same things, a truth that Justin Martyr discovered on a beach near Ephesus close to two thousand years ago.
Makoto Fujimara, a convert to Christianity, spoke of the Japanese tradition of repairing art, a generational healing of trauma. It was powerful, hopeful and immersed in a beauty that brought a tear to many in attendance.
For some of those at ARC, conservativism means money, for others it is power.
Fujimara shows what it truly is, beauty, fortitude and forgiveness,
His talk shows that Catholics have a role to play in any potential Conservative revival in the West, even if it feels at times understated it should not cause alarm, that is how God works sometimes, just as He sometimes works like a ‘wrecking ball’.
This talk is recommended, here is to the next ARC event, may it produce as many good fruits as this one did, journeying as Fujimara says ‘from lament to glory’.
