A New Dawn In The East

So, probably no “defensive” missiles in Poland or the Czech Republic, after all. Very close to Iran (of which, another time) as those countries obviously are, such location would in no sense have been an expression of hostility towards Russia. Would it? Russia understandably responded in kind and prepared to move her own missiles to within the old Kingdom of Prussia.

Obama should now make it clear that he wants nothing but peace with a country which, among so many other things, has done as both his new supporters across small town white America, and his bedrock supporters across black America, long to do, and restored the teaching of Christianity in schools.

Of course we should be developing nuclear power, and applying clean coal technology, for reasons including (though far from restricted to) the simple and indispensable principle that we should never be beholden to any foreign country, regardless of which one it is. This island stands on coal. And we can obtain uranium from the Canadians, who are not foreigners, but Her Majesty’s Loyal Subjects. We do not need either Arab oil or Russian gas. So we must, if necessary, force ourselves to do without them.

But today’s Russia, rather than the day before yesterday’s, has no reason to attack a country with bishops sitting as such in her legislature, with publicly funded Christian chaplains in her Armed Forces and her National Health Service, or with (at least on paper) Christian RE and collective worship in her schools.

Likewise, today’s Russia has no reason to attack a country with church taxes, with numerous public services provided by the churches as the largest employers after the several tiers of government, or with the Kirchentag. Russia has no reason to attack a country which recently reaffirmed that marriage is only ever the union of one man and one woman.

Today’s Russia has no reason to attack any beacon of Christian sacral monarchy, monarchy being an institution for which no purely secular argument can be created, and there being 11 Christian sacral monarchies in Europe (12 if you count the Vatican), which Russia would do well to join, and one of which also exercises several interrelated global roles such as make it the contemporary world’s pre-eminent or even only example of the tradition of the Holy Roman Emperors, the Byzantine Emperors, and the Tsars of All The Russia. And so on.

Spain, the Irish Republic (yes, the Irish Republic) and others need to make sure that they do not make enemies of today’s Russia by digging up their roots in Christendom. And we all need to watch out that we do not submit to Islamisation, not least including the creation of Islamic states in Europe such as Kosovo (although the cry of the muezzin now also echoes around Harvard Square), or the economic (and thus, inevitably, cultural and political) domination by the Far East.

But two Western countries have, for reasons of their own, particularly pressing needs to mend their ways.

One is France.

The other is the United States, where, if such things as California’s and Florida’s simultaneous results of the Presidential Election and of certain ballot line propositions are anything to go by, those most committed to such way-mending, and previously divided by ethnicity and pigmentation, last year united behind Barack Obama. But could just as easily unite behind someone else next time if he had failed to deliver the goods.