Tea at Trianon: Don’t Take Advice From Arthur C. Brooks

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, March 26, 2026

Don’t Take Advice From Arthur C. Brooks

From Mark Judge at Chronicles:

In 2017, Brooks gave a speech at the annual prayer breakfast in Washington, D.C. Trump was in the audience. Brooks ladled out his message of human flourishing and “loving your enemies.” He exhorted Trump to follow the words of Jesus. After Brooks took his seat on the dais, Trump stepped up to the mic. “Arthur, I don’t know if I agree with you—and I don’t know if Arthur is going to like what I’m going to say,” Trump said, before ripping into the “very dishonest and corrupt people” who had “done everything possible to destroy us, and by so doing, very badly hurt our nation.” “They know what they are doing is wrong,” Trump went on, “but they put themselves far ahead of our great country.”

Politico described the fallout this way: “In the media firestorm that ensued, observers quickly pointed out that Trump had not just repudiated Brooks’ advice; he had questioned the teachings of Jesus Christ himself.”

To the contrary, President Trump was reminding the audience of the reality and nature of evil. Unlike Arthur Brooks, Trump rejects the lazy theology that pretends evil must be tolerated. Yes, Jesus taught us to love our enemies. He also cast out demons. (Read more.)