Fellowship: How We Can Recover the Power of the Conservative Movement

I had to think on this for awhile, let it simmer a bit before commenting. Because this is an important topic I don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression.

Fellowship is not friendship, as Bill and Zo pointed out. Still, it is a sharing somewhat similar to friendship and friendship can easily precipitate out of fellowship.

You can’t choose your relatives but you can pick your friends. I learned at a very young age to be wary of cheap friendships.

We moved around a lot when I was of school age, I didn’t grow up in one place and develop lifelong friends (or enemies) like a lot of people do. This moving around was because my Dad would find a better paying job and we’d have to relocate. He was a bit of a “the grass is always greener on the other side of the hill” sort but he never moved our family frivolously either. There was always a real economic gain to be had.

Dad was a very intelligent, capable man but only had an 8th grade education. He fought for the duration in Korea and came home, got married and started a family. His abilities exceeded his education so as he demonstrated those abilities opportunities opened up for him and he took them. My earliest memories are of us being very poor as Dad worked for the local implement dealer and moonlighted by doing farm work. By the time I left home and joined the military he was a regional manager of a major ag equipment supplier in charge of operations in several grain belt states.

I’m going into this background because it’s important to understand that we didn’t just move around the country because my father was irresponsible and always chasing some unattainable dream. My life would have turned out much different if that were the case. The reasons we moved were as sound as the family life I enjoyed when I was young.

Of course, like any kid I hated moving. It’s a real, genuine hardship for young people to leave friends behind and an even bigger hardship to try to make new, good friends.

Remember what I said about you don’t choose your relatives but you do pick your friends? Well there’s a bit of an art to making that choice and there’s a learning curve that can be more than a little hazardous too.

One of the things I learned very early was that the very first people who want to be your friend in a new school should be scrutinized with vigor before accepting their friendship. These are often the people at the very bottom rung of the ladder who have nothing to lose and much to gain by being your “friend”. I’m not being a snob here and I’m not talking about school age social considerations either. I’m talking about character.

The dopers, thieves and delinquents are always all too happy to welcome a new member to their group. If you’re not there already they’ll pull you down to their level if they can. If you can’t be pulled down to their rung they gain respectability, credibility and status by having you for a friend. It’s a one way deal, they gain and any way you look at it you lose. So they’re right there with open arms when you walk into a new school.

The people you want to be friends with are a lot more discriminating about who they’ll choose for friends and … Like you should be — their friendship has to be earned. The telling factor is what it takes to earn such friendships.

At this point I’ll remind you again that I’m not a snob. If I have to earn the respect of a snob by becoming a snob too, that’s no different than earning the friendship of a doper by joining him in getting high.

These early lessons have carried through my whole life. I’m wary of people who offer their hand in friendship, real friendship not just friendly relations in mutual dealings. I’m not hostile, I’m not aloof, I’m not judgemental until I find something that warrants such attitudes. I look for “tells” in people all the time. If you’ve posted something here on Bill Whittle’s website and I’ve read it, I’m reading what you have to say but I’m also looking for the “tells” I know are going to be there. I’ve made some friends here, as much as anyone could be a friend in these circumstances — And I’ve made more than one adversary too. Neither case is an accident on my part.

I’ve put due diligence into this process all my life. I am diligent here too. More than one person I’ve crossed swords with here on this site I have hashed out our disagreements with in personal messages. If I bother to go that route it’s because I think someone is probably worthy of respect but we have an issue that needs to be cleared up one way or another. I’m almost always correct in that assessment and though I may not become a “friend” to that person we can at least proceed from there in a friendly manner. Friendship is a potential that may be realized later on and I do not want to close the door to that with someone I have determined is worthy of my respect. If I respect you, you are a potential friend.

How does all of this relate to “fellowship”?

You don’t have to be my friend for me to want you to be on the same side of conservative politics as I am. I’m happy for you to vote conservative no matter what. Voting is purely a numbers game and the best I can hope for in that regard is to use reason and persuasion to get you to vote the way I would like.

That said, there are people who vote or potentially vote conservative that I want nothing to do with, I do not even value their fellowship because their fellowship is detrimental to my cause. They want to join our fellowship of respectable, responsible conservatism to bolster their own credibility or their own ego.

For instance — Michael Knowles and others are fond of saying things like “Today’s conspiracy becomes a reality six months from now.”

That is not an endorsement of conspiracy theories so much as it is a criticism of the lies the Left uses for political gain.

When Knowles et. al. say something like that, they’re not talking about classic, widespread conspiracy theories. Like the world is run by Lizard People, aliens from other worlds walk among us unbeknownst, there is a secret NAZI base in Antarctica plotting to take over the world, HAARP is a secret government weather and mind control cabal, jets are spewing chemtrails to alter the climate, etc.

Those are not “conspiracy theories” that will be proven factual six months from now and that’s not what is being referred to in that sort of statement.

Sadly, those who subscribe to that sort of nonsense are willing and eager to apply such a statement to their own pet conspiracy theories. They are trying to join our fellowship to give their own delusions weight and credibility.

Just as it is wise to be discerning in friendship, it’s also a very good idea to apply the same sort of discernment to fellowship. You don’t want Satanists fellowshipping with your Church just because they freely admit Jesus is the Son of God. You don’t want a Lizard People advocate speaking for conservatives in any manner either. In both cases the error is bolstered at the expense of the fellowship.

Those sorts of people want the fellowship of real conservatives because it makes them appear, in their minds, more legitimate. What it actually does is cheapen and erode the fellowship they very much want to join for their own, selfish reasons.

Like so many things there’s an old adage that applies here. “Beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing”. There’s a reason why those old adages are no longer being taught to the young. I’m not a wolf, I’m a sheepdog. A sheepdog protects and respects the flock, a wolf wants to satisfy his own appetite. By eating the flock. One sheep at a time.

Those wolves are fairly easy to spot if you look for them. Their “tells” are obvious if you know what to look for. Sheep cannot defeat a wolf one-on-one and should not try. That’s a job best left to the sheepdogs. It’s OK if you’re a sheep in the fold but you really, really ought to heed the sheepdogs too.

This is the only way to guard against wolves and keep the fellowship healthy and productive.