To The Australian Greg Sheridan correctly notes ("Conservatives world over lose winning culture", 10-11/11) that "the real elephant in the room of conservative defeat is the decline of religious belief" and that "you cannot sustain a conservative culture in the face of the collapse of transcendent belief." Why then is there so little discussion in our national forums of the profound adjustments to Christian theology (much greater than those of the Reformation of 500 years ago) that are needed and that can lead to a renewal of sacred understanding in our culture? On another aspect of the diminution of conservative influence in Western nations Sheridan is regrettably obsequious. He dismisses scathingly "white identity politics", but one essential ingredient of conservative philosophy is respect and affection for one's ethnic group and the heritage it has bequeathed. Conservatives have been too easily paralysed by the "serpent's eye" of anti-racism fanatics.
Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic