{"id":1893,"date":"2011-11-04T01:01:09","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T01:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=1893"},"modified":"2011-12-06T03:20:49","modified_gmt":"2011-12-06T03:20:49","slug":"edmund-burke-would-not-be-pleased","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/edmund-burke-would-not-be-pleased\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmund Burke Would Not Be Pleased"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Edmund Burke<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On this very day (4 November) in 1789, the Frenchman Charles-Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Depont wrote to Edmund Burke MP, requesting that he endorse the Revolution that had just broken out in France.<\/p>\n

Burke’s response to Charles-Jean turned into one of the most celebrated political tracts in history, and for good reason. Not only did Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France<\/a> <\/em>become a pillar of conservative political thought, but it stands alongside the works of Shakespeare and the King James Bible as being the greatest literary achievement in the English language.<\/p>\n

Christian Voice did a biography of Edmund Burke in our January 2010 newsletter as part of our ongoing series of Christian heroes. (To join Christian Voice and receive our monthly newsletter, click HERE<\/a>.) We explored Burke’s idea that true freedom can only be preserved by reverencing our ancestors. This is because liberty is not, according to Burke, a natural right of man but the product of tradition, family, and faith. As such, liberty is passed on in much the same way that property is transmitted, from one generation to another through inheritance.<\/p>\n

To support this notion of liberty as an inheritance, Burke pointed to the great freedoms of the British tradition, showing that they had accumulated over a period stretching back to the Declaration of Rights, the Magna Charta and the entire network of common law freedoms preserved by the hereditary monarchy. He warned that the legacy of these liberties would not long abide a generation that was willing to cast off the heritage of their ancestors. At the same time, however, Burke did not advocate a static traditionalism; rather, whenever he wished to reform, it was in order to conserve. He understood the wisdom of Proverbs when it says, \u201cRemove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set\u201d (Prov. 22:28) and \u201cMy son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change: For their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both?\u201d (Prov. 24:21-22)<\/p>\n

If Burke had lived long enough to see our own age, I do not think he would be pleased. We live at a time when the common law foundations that have been transmitted to us by our ancestors are under constant attack. Consider that<\/p>\n