Why Should You Care?

Grim links to, quotes from, and comments on a powerful essay from First Things, "We Are Repaganizing" by Louise Perry, author of The Case Against The Sexual Revolution. I have not read the book, only heard about it and the controversy it causes.  As my own view on the what has been worth keeping and what discarding in the cultural changes of the last hundred years is pretty much set I hadn't thought it worth it to read someone who agrees with me that much.  But Perry's writing is vivid, and her thinking more so. She writes about abortion, and even though she herself puts it on a continuum with infanticide, she cannot bring herself to declare entire opposition to it. Her self-honesty drives the essay, even as it frustrates the reader who wishes she would only follow what she now knows. (Which would be me, and also Grim.)

If you want to know what I think about her essay, I commented at length at Grim's. I will add that her understanding of paganism diverges from Chesterton's in about the same way that CS Lewis's does. Ordinarily we would reach the easy conclusion that CSL got it from GKC, but in this case I think it would be fairer to identify Tolkien as his source. The divergence does not much harm her reasoning, though.