Grace at the H.L. Mencken Club

John Derbyshire writes at The Corner, but he has started a new blog, Secular Right, for secular conservatives. Writing there as Bradlaugh, for his home town, he tells the story of being at the H.L. Mencken Club as a guest speaker. Mencken, in case you don't know was a 20th century writer and critic of American culture. He was also an atheist; he famously covered the Scopes Trial where he was very critical of creationists. Here is Derb on sitting down to eat his meal at the Mencken event:

Well, so there I was sitting down to dinner on the first evening of this Menckenfest. Seeing a plate of salad in front of me, I applied some condiments and started eating. In between the second and third mouthfuls I heard an amplified voice coming from the speakers’ tables: “All right, everybody, we shall now say Grace. Bless us O Lord and these thy gifts …” I felt as if I’d been caught picking my nose on live TV.

Somewhat later I got into conversation with the lady who had given out the Grace. She was very charming and friendly, and had been instrumental in getting the conference organized, so is obviously very capable. It emerged, however, in the course of our conversation, that she is a Young Earth Creationist!

What Mencken would have made of this, I don’t know. What I make of it is, that the prospects for a godless American conservatism are not very bright.

I think there are some interesting times ahead for conservatives.