Posted on 04/23/2015 6:25:07 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A response to Rod Dreher’s “Benedict Option”
An atmosphere of gloom and despair pervades some cultural-conservative circles, and, at first glance, it’s easy to understand why. There’s no question that hysterical public assaults on Christians or others who dissent from leftist sexual orthodoxy are increasing in volume and frequency. It seems as if every day there’s a new story of an attempt to silence, intimidate, or publicly shame social conservatives.
It’s not enough to express disagreement with cultural conservatives — they must lose their jobs, lose their businesses, and close their schools, unless they bend the knee to the sexual revolution. Bonds of friendship and loyalty are meaningless if the cultural conservative holds the wrong view on same-sex marriage, and Christian clubs are vile discriminators if they simply want to be led by Christian leaders. In the “blue” sectors of America, particularly the academy, some Christians feel that they have to live under deep cover to protect their careers.
All of this is true. All of this is daunting. And none of it is cause for cultural retreat. Yet that is exactly what one of America’s more influential cultural conservatives is proposing. Rod Dreher, formerly at National Review and now at The American Conservative, advocates what he calls the “Benedict Option” in the face of the cultural onslaught: What I call the Benedict Option is this: a limited, strategic withdrawal of Christians from the mainstream of American popular culture, for the sake of shoring up our understanding of what the church is, and what we must do to be the church. We must do this because the strongly anti-Christian nature of contemporary popular culture occludes the meaning of the Gospel, and hides from us the kinds of habits and practices we need to engage in to be truly faithful to what we have been given. Before I go on, let me make it clear that I have the utmost respect for Mr. Dreher. I reviewed his book The Little Way of Ruthie Leming, and I can honestly say it changed my life. I always find Rod thoughtful and worth reading — as do many, many others (he’s speaking this week at the influential Q Conference, about the Benedict Option), and that’s precisely why his idea merits a response.
I must admit, my first response to the notion of “strategic withdrawal” is less intellectual and more visceral. Retreat? I recall John Paul Jones’s words, “I have not yet begun to fight,” or, more succinctly, General Anthony McAuliffe’s legendary response to German surrender demands at Bastogne: “Nuts!” In reality, Christian conservatives have barely begun to fight. Christians, following the examples of the Apostles, should never retreat from the public square. They must leave only when quite literally forced out, after expending every legal bullet, availing themselves of every right of protest, and after exhausting themselves in civil disobedience. Have cultural conservatives spent half the energy on defense that the Left has spent on the attack?
After all, the theological base is still strong. As I’ve pointed out before, not one orthodox Christian denomination is even contemplating shifting its stance on sexual-revolution issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, and the traditionalist faiths are holding the line in membership or growing. By contrast, the mainline, progressive churches are collapsing in membership, continuing a long slide that could see some of America’s historic denominations essentially vanish in our lifetimes. The grassroots of social conservatism are not just strong but increasing in strength. The cultural Left has lost one high-profile cultural clash after another. From the Chick-fil-A “boycott,” to Hobby Lobby’s legal and cultural triumph, to the recent windfall and triumphant reopening of Memories Pizza, when the cultural Right actually bothers to mobilize, the cultural Left tends to lose. And while pop culture produces prodigious quantities of leftist propaganda, the surprising box office of God’s Not Dead, the overwhelming success of American Sniper, celebrating the life of a Christian warrior, and the consistent ratings for Bible-themed television demonstrate that there remains a large-scale appetite for works of art that advance, whether by intention or by effect, a substantially more conservative point of view.
Crucially, the Left is engaged in a furious internal debate over the very same hysterical tactics that are driving some conservatives to despair. Not every leftist wants to live in a culture where dissent is crushed, dissenters are driven out of jobs, and free speech is redefined as the freedom to shout down your opponents. It is not time to retreat when even key members of the cultural opposition — people who will never agree with conservatives on core social issues — agree their side has gone too far.
Finally, a strategic withdrawal would play directly into the hands of those who would redefine religious liberty as simply the things that people do within the four walls of church. There is a reason the Obama administration speaks so frequently of a “right to worship” rather than the much broader concept of “religious freedom.” There is a reason the Department of Health and Human Services so narrowly defined religious exemptions to its abortion-pill mandates, providing the clear opt-out for “church plans” and virtually no one else. When Christianity is confined to church, its impact is limited, its perspective is isolated, and its parishioners are besieged.
I say none of this to minimize the challenge or to gloss over the very sense of exhaustion and vulnerability felt by many Christians in America’s bluest regions. Things may get worse before they get better. But the world is not Boston, nor is it New York or Washington, D.C. And now is not the time to retreat, not when so many millions have barely begun to fight.
Lazy!
Mr. French is right. We must stand and fight. We must not abandon our iconic cultural institutions to the left. We have often done just that.
Yes I am, but what has that to do with this thread? Not italicizing the news sites?
I miss a loud “counter-culture”.
lol
Cultural Conservatives should have been fighting all along...
argh
:p
Rod Dreher has always struck me as being a squish.
And that's the problem in a nutshell.
The term “marriage” is the hook, to pull at the heart strings of the uninformed. The true discussion has to do with “rights” that are only afforded to heterosexual couples. If two homosexuals want to file jointly, or have the ability to make “life” decisions concerning their other half, so be it. Man made law can address these issues but can’t redefine Gods. Equality in man made law is just, however, man made law shall not infringe on Gods law, which is also just.
A floor, walls and a roof not make a church, but a heart is where it flourishes.
The author is wrong. At a certain point, Lot had to make the dhoice to follow God and leave the denizens of sodom and gomorrah to their fate. In the final analysis we really can’t make pigs sing or be righteous or do anything else other than be pigs. It is not our job as Christians to push the issue with those who are pathologically opposed to us and what we believe.
Its long past time for American Christians to build our own civil society.
You are absolutely right. My wife and I talked about this tonight. The Republican party cannot protect Christians any more. What good is it? If the Supreme Court rules that states cannot define marriage as they see fit, then it’s over. At that point, there is only one way left to vote...not Democrat....not Republican....but with one’s feet.
There is a profound need to master and conquer “sexual fundamentalism”
There are no verses on homosexuality or heterosexuality.
God said if you want to have sex— have it with one person of the opposite sex.
It was and remains the ultimate gold standards diversity— understanding, living, accepting that opposite sex.
Same sex marriage is a sham intended to bolster our worst bigotries centered around sexism. We love ourselves. What better way to institutionalize our self love than same sex marriage.
We must reject the sexuality labeling and promote labels of male and female.
Too much time sitting around waiting for conservative candidates to win for us and not enough time on the battlefield.
Bingo. To which I might add the corollary war cry of the RINOcrat nemesis: "He can win."
FReepers, in your opinion, what will be the trigger event for a sixth Great Awakening in the USA?
Here is mine: Ophonybama and his LIEberal hangers-on will continue their overreach. Once pissed off, the American people will stay pissed off until LIEberalism is thoroughly discredited and relegated to the dust bin of History. May take a few years.
“Cultural Conservatives should have been fighting all along...”
The left managed to paint themselves as the aggressors now we must paint the left for what they really are, Intolerant fascist to the point of distorting the lives of people who merely refuses to tow their line.
We do this effectively and we will drive the fascist left back into their intolerant box for anther generation because we will highlight the hypocritical lie that is modern ‘liberalism’.
“Cultural Conservatives should have been fighting all along...”
The left managed to paint themselves as the aggressors now we must paint the left for what they really are, Intolerant fascist to the point of distorting the lives of people who merely refuses to tow their line.
We do this effectively and we will drive the fascist left back into their intolerant box for anther generation because we will highlight the hypocritical lie that is modern ‘liberalism’.
The Left is getting more secular and pro-government every day. We need to start punching back twice as hard. Calling them on their lies and falsehoods. Note that the media constantly paints Christians in the worst like from television shows, movies and news reports. Libraries have ‘Banned Book Week’ which usually targets some Christian parent(s) objecting to a sexed up book being spoonfed to their kids by the local government school. They’re in our minds all day long. Time to fight back is way past.
No politician is going to win this ‘war’. They’re going to simply reflect the mushy middle that elects them. We need to turn that mushy middle around with love and logic.
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