Draft Article for the St. Peter's Parish Newsletter

Chillicothe Chesterton Society

The Chillicothe Chesterton Society will now meet in the new Holy Family Library of St. Peter’s Parish Hall. While the previous meetings of the Society have been held at Schlegel’s Coffee House, all future meetings, beginning on September 15th, will be held in the new Library. Meetings are held on the 3rd Wednesday of the month, at 7 p.m. The meetings are scheduled for an hour.

The Chillicothe Chesterton Society is a group of people who are interested in the writings of British author Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 - 1936). Here is some information on Chesterton which is taken from the web site of the American Chesterton Society. This was written by the President of the Society, Dale Ahlquist.

Chesterton argued eloquently against all the trends that eventually took over the 20th century: materialism, scientific determinism, moral relativism, and spineless agnosticism. He also argued against both socialism and capitalism and showed why they have both been the enemies of freedom and justice in modern Society.

And what did he argue for? What was it he defended? He defended "the common man" and common sense. He defended the poor. He defended the family. He defended beauty. And he defended Christianity and the Catholic Faith. These don’t play well in the classroom, in the media, or in the public arena. And that is probably why he is neglected. The modern world prefers writers who are snobs, who have exotic and bizarre ideas, who glorify decadence, who scoff at Christianity, who deny the dignity of the poor, and who think freedom means no responsibility.

The Chillicothe Chesterton Society was formed a couple of years ago as a local Society of the American Chesterton Society. The goals of the national society and the local societies are the same: to reintroduce people to the writings of G.K. Chesterton. Last year, as part of that effort, St. Peter’s and the Society sponsored presentations by Dr. John C. Chalberg in “An Evening With G.K. Chesterton” and “Old Thunder: An Evening With Hilaire Belloc.” Fans of EWTN recognized Dr. Chalberg as portraying G.K. Chesterton on “The Apostle of Common Sense” and Kevin O’Brien, President and Artistic Director of The Theater of The Word, as having portrayed just about everybody: Belloc, Father Brown, Stanford Nutting, etc.

For more information on the Chillicothe Chesterton Society check out our blog at chillicothe-chestertonian.blogspot.com or find us on Facebook at Chillicothe Chesterton Society. There are links on those sites to the American Chesterton Society.

Subject for September 15, 2010 Meeting - What's Wrong With The World

The 29th Annual Chesterton Conference has just ended (Aug 7, 2010). The Conference celebrated the 100th anniversary of Chesterton's book What's Wrong With The World. You can still see the Conference agenda here. You can read WWWTW at Project Gutenberg here. While it was not listed on the agenda, we had a great treat when G.K. himself made a special appearance. Yes, Chuck Chalberg (pictured above) attended the Conference and donned his wig, cape, hat, pince-nez and swordstick, as he provided a short visit from Mr. Chesterton. The crowd loved it.

At any rate, all that was simply to alert potential meeting attendees to the fact that the initial subject of discussion at the meeting will be selected essays from WWWTW. I'll suggest these three; The Emancipation of Domesticity, The Modern Slave, and Folly and Female Education. I'll have copies of those available. We can, of course, discuss anything and everything.

New Drawing of G.K. Chesterton

I just received my newest drawing of G.K. Chesterton today. It was done by Ben Hatke. What a great job. I love it. Thanks for the great work, Ben.

Note I've said nothing about our last Chillicothe Chesterton Society meeting. I guess the shows by Chuck Chalberg (G.K. Chesterton) and Kevin O'Brien (Hilaire Belloc) provided enough Chesterton related information for a few weeks. No one joined me for the meeting. Oh well, after enjoying an excellent Schlegel's decaf, I just went over to St. Peter and joined the on-going choir practice. Maybe next month some folks will show up!!

Chesterton's Lecture at St. Peter Parish a Success

Last night Mr. G. K. Chesterton presented a lecture on Darwin. The lecture was presented at Chillicothe's St. Peter Parish Hall. About 35 people were in attendance. Mr. Chesterton noted that this was his third visit to America. He further noted that had Prohibition not been repealed he would not have returned to the United States. Mr. Chesterton is not a teetotaler. Although he has quipped that "We should thank God for beer and Burgundy by not drinking too much of them." While I can't recall that he specifically mentioned it, some of Mr. Chesterton's views on teetotalism may be found in his 1914 book, The Flying Inn. Mr. Chesterton gave the audience an insight to his early childhood, speaking fondly of his father, mother and siblings. He especially recalled his father's building him a toy theater and tellling amazing fairy tales.

While I can't recall all of Mr. Chesterton's statements made during the course of his lecture, here are a few of those that strike me as most memorable:

"Misers get up early in the morning; and burglars, I am informed, get up the night before."

"Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around."

"I would give a woman not more rights, but more privileges. Instead of sending her to seek such freedom as notoriously prevails in banks and factories, I would design specially a house in which she can be free."

"A modern vegetarian is also a teetotaler, yet there is no obvious connection between consuming vegetables and not consuming fermented vegetables. A drunkard, when lifted laboriously out of the gutter, might well be heard huskily to plead that he had fallen there through excessive devotion to a vegetable diet."

"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die."

"Never let a quarrel get in the way of a good argument."

As you can see from the quotations, Mr. Chesterton departed from his prepared Darwinian Lecture notes quite frequently. At one point in the lecture he actually reclined on a sofa and spoke about drawing on the ceiling.

At the conclusion of his lecture, Mr. Chesterton answered question from the audience. All in all, a wonderful evening!

Above: Mr. Chesterton chats with members of the audience after his lecture.

See G. K. Chesterton on Friday, April 9, 2010

Attention all Lurkers

If you check out this blog occasionally (but have not made comments), and attend any of the up-coming Theater of The Word or History on Stage events, please say hello to me. I'd love to meet you. I'll be at all the events.

Watch The Apostle of Common Sense on Your Computer

I finally was able to watch The Apostle of Common Sense on Sunday night at 9 p.m. on my computer. Fantastic. We recently gave up our satellite dish and went to a regular antenna. It's much easier on the budget! Here's the link for EWTN, the Eternal Word Television Network, the network which carries The Apostle of Common Sense. The Apostle of Common Sense is also shown on EWTN at 2 p.m. on Fridays.

Reflections of a Community College Professor

Here's an interesting article by Professor John C. Chalberg. Dr. Chalberg is, of course "Chuck" Chalberg or as we Chestertonians know him, G.K. Chesterton. He portrays several other historical figures as well. We look forward to his presentation here in Chillicothe on Friday, April 9 at St. Peter Parish Hall.

G.K. Chesterton to Appear in Chillicothe, Ohio, April 9, 2010

Chuck has graciously extended his visit to Ohio to provide Chillicothe with a visit from G.K. Chesterton. Chuck portrays Chesterton on EWTN's The Apostle of Common Sense with host Dale Ahlquist, president of the American Chesterton Society.

G. K. Chesterton to Speak in Chillicothe, Ohio

This YouTube clip was too good to pass up. Here's Chuck Chalberg (on the right) in action as G.K. Chesterton. Blachford is played by Kevin O'Brien.

Chillicothe's St. Peter's Catholic Church, with support from the Chillicothe Chesterton Society will be presenting an evening with G.K. Chesterton in the Parish Hall on Friday evening, April 9, 2010. As more information become available, we'll post it.

G.K. Chesterton to be brought to life at MVNU

I know this is a little early, but..... when you're a Chesterton fanatic like me, it's never too early to plan a trip to see something Chestertonian, especially if it's only a couple of hours away.

April 6, 2010

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio – Educator and entertainer, Dr. John “Chuck” Chalberg will perform for MVNU’s Lecture/Artist Series on Tuesday, April 6, 2010 in the R.R. Hodges Chapel/Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Chalberg brings to life on stage several important historical figures and will portray G.K. Chesterton at Mount Vernon Nazarene University (MVNU).

The event is free and open to the public.

Mount Vernon is about 100 miles northeast of Chillicothe. If I can generate some interest in the Chillicothe area we could possibly get Chuck to perform here.

Call from "G.K. Chesterton"

What a great day! I'm having one of my "retired" days, just playing on the Internet and avoiding mowing the lawn, and I get a call from G. K. Chesterton (Dr. Chuck Chalberg.) He called me thinking that the Chillicothe Chesterton Society might like to have him make a presentation as G. K. Chesterton sometime next year. I explained that the entire Chillicothe Chesterton Society consists of only me. I'm not having a lot of luck enticing folks to join. However, he is going to send me some info on his shows and I'll work with the local churches to see if we can generate some interest in having him stop down here to Chillicothe when he visits Mt. Vernon in April of next year. I'll be working very hard to make a visit from Chuck/G.K possible for next year. Here is Chuck's web site, History on Stage, if you'd like to check out all his talents. You can also hear Chuck on EWTN's Apostle of Common Sense, with Dale Ahlquist.