Crunchies Everywhere
Posted by JohnS (May 4, 2006 at 5:13 am)
Earlier this week, I was perusing my copy of Crisis magazine — a wonderful Catholic monthly — when I spotted a book review for Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas, right-wing nature lover and their diverse tribe of countercultural conservatives plan to save America (or at least the Republican Party).
The author Rod Dreher was a former writer for The National Review. On Tuesday, I sped over to Border’s at lunch to pick up my own copy. I confess, I’m a Crunchy Conservative. I haven’t been able to put the book down. There are many reasons why Eastern Christians in particular should read this book. I plan to touch on some of them in upcoming posts.
For now though, it might be best to try to get a handle on just what is a “crunchy conservative”? Dreher notes, crunchies are “conservatives by conviction and temperament, normally vote Republican, but don’t buy in to the consumerist and individualist mainstream of American life” (12). I’ve been like this since the age of 18.
I’m reading that book too, John, and I’m having pretty much the same reaction as you. I was blown away when I read that Dreher is an Eastern Catholic (or at least, attends a Maronite parish)—I couldn’t agree with you more that the Crunch Con ethos fits right in with Eastern Christianity.
Interesting side note: on his blog, Dreher recently commented that he’s considering Orthodoxy. Both John Gibson and I have offered comments there, more or less to the effect that we hope he stays Catholics but hope even more fervently that one day there won’t be any difference between Catholic and Orthodox.
Comment posted May 4th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
And let’s not forget iconophile’s great masterpiece…
http://www.caelumetterra.com/
Gordo
Comment posted May 12th, 2006 at 11:39 pm
Oh, man.. more gun toting, hunter’s rights, green’s eating, scrapple frying, sauerkraut eatin’, organic goat’s milk drinking, middle americans…come to Pennsylvania. Let’s start a movement, ahhhh, like the ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ kind, and evangelize this nation. Back to the roots, literally, mik
Comment posted June 11th, 2006 at 5:58 am