The ‘Benedict Option’ is not enough

April 26, 2017

Camosy: Do you agree with Dreher’s diagnosis?

Michael Baxter: Yes and no.

Yes, I agree that mainstream U.S. culture is largely un-Christian, and that the government imposes secular values and mentality on supposedly independent bodies, including churches.

But no, I don’t agree that this all came to a head in 2013 with the Indiana religious freedom statue being rescinded and then the Supreme Court decision affirming the right for gays to marry. Dreher sees 2013 and gay marriage as the point of no return. I don’t see it that way.

How do you see it?

Christians should be as troubled, indeed more troubled, by war, poverty, racism in the United States than Dreher seems to be.  Writing as a “conservative Christian,” as a “values voter,” as he calls himself at one point, Dreher’s timeline and plotline are warped accordingly.

He refers to the 1960s as a time of consensus, except civil rights, as if the Vietnam War ever happened or wasn’t a concern for Christians. He mentions the Reagan years as if it was a highpoint in U.S. politics: The good ole days of nuclear terror, the Iran Contra scandal, and civil war in El Salvador, with U.S. funds ($1,000,000 a day) being diverted to the death squads.

Read more at https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2017/04/26/benedict-option-not-enough/