Actually, it's properly named the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal and is the brainchild of the late Russell Kirk and his widow Annette. Who is Russell Kirk? He is largely credited with giving modern (but pre-neocon) conservatism a solid intellectual footing with his landmark work, The Conservative Mind.
What the Kirk Center does is hold a number of seminars, spotlighting some aspect of the struggle for our culture, encouraging the attendees to go out and promote "the permanent things." I've been lucky enough to have been there twice now, once last year for a Chesterton seminar and just this weekend for couple of talks that were largely about the antipathy that much of academia has for any notion of truth.
The relevance of all this to this site and the Culture of Life Conference is two-fold. First, there is that world "culture" shared in both titles. Culture is more than just apologetics and talking points. Culture is all that goes into making our lives what they are, it is the messages sent to us by our media, our friends and shapes how we think and act. Therefore, winning the culture wars will take far more than recounting facts and arguments, more that pointing out Truth. We must also seek to point out the beauty and timelessness of Truth.
Secondly, Mrs. Kirk told me about the Culture of Life Foundation and how they may be a good resource for us in the future. For now, go and check them out.
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