Do Not Disavow

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Do Not Disavow By: Rick Davis   When Charlemagne established law Salic in barb’rous land, The gospel flourished, and he saw Christ’s praise on every hand.   (“Do you approve his methods now?”) I do not disavow.   King Godfrey took Jerusalem From bloody paynim hands And brought a halt to Musselmen Invading Christian lands.   (“He did some mean things anyhow!”) I do not disavow.   King Richard with his scarlet shield And passant lions ‘bossed Rode forth again unto the field To regain what was lost.   (“His deeds at Acre you allow?”) I do not disavow.   Unto the Germans Luther brought The gospel full restored, And Calvin at Geneva taught The glory of the Lord.   (“The Jews? Servetus? Holy cow!”) I do not disavow.   Stonewall and Lee like knights of old Fought for their native soil, The true and lovely to uphold Against the tyrant’s spoil.   (“Those vile racists ...
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Happy 140th Gilbert!

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Well, it's G. K. Chesterton's 140th Birthday, and also the day known in the Davis household as "Chesterton Day". For those who don't know, Chesterton was an artist, journalist, amateur theologian, poet, philosopher, playwright, and apologist. He wore a cape, carried a sword-cane, and kept a bar of chocolate in his pocket at all times. He was known for often sitting down in the middle of the sidewalk in London to draw pictures with chalk, dictating entire books with no revision or proofreading, and showing up two hours late for his own wedding: he explained to his wife that he had needed to stop on the way to the church to buy a pistol so that he could defend her from pirates on their honeymoon in Norfolk. He carried on lively public debates with atheists like George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, H.G. Wells, and even Clarence Darrow (of "Scopes Monkey Trial" fame).

In honor of the big man's b-day, I picked a couple of great quotes from him for you to chew on for a bit. Enjoy!

"To smatter the tongues of men and angels, to dabble in the dreadful sciences, to juggle with pillars and pyramids and toss up the planets like balls, this is that inner audacity and indifference which the human soul, like a conjurer catching oranges, must keep up forever. This is that insanely frivolous thing we call sanity... if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly."
-from What's Wrong With the World 

(A note on the above quote: In context, Chesterton is talking about mothers and why mothers need to have a broad, liberal arts education. It's a defense of the generalist over and against the specialist, of the amateur over the professional. Go ahead and read the whole essay. It's short.)

"Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously. The latest fads of culture, the latest sophistries of anarchism will carry us away if we are uneducated; we shall not know how very old are all new ideas...The uneducated man will always care too much for complications, novelties, the fashion, the latest thing. The uneducated man will always be an intellectual dandy."
-from The Illustrated London News, Dec. 2, 1905

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