The Benedict Option & Barbarians at the Gate

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Della said:
Great article: theimaginativeconservative.org/2017/06/benedict-option-barbarians-gate-john-horvat-timeless.html.

If you agree with the author, how do we go about combining Benedict and Boniface?

If not, what should Christians do in the face of unrelenting efforts to undermine all that we hold dear?
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This article could have been written about my mother. She was very much a “crunchy con” until she tried to home remedy her cancer symptoms and died too young.

What’s different this time around is that the “barbarians” would be perfectly happy to leave agrarian religious communities alone (e.g. the Amish) so long as those communities don’t cost the barbarians money (e.g. by demanding barbarian services.) The problem isn’t that “crunchy cons” couldn’t live apart from the “barbarians,” it’s that the crunchy cons couldn’t stand the social marginalization that comes with being Amish-ified. They want to be the ones in charge; they want their beliefs to be the norm, and they want other groups to have to leave mainstream society in order to live the way they want. (They also rely on the barbarian’s services)
 
JapaneseKappa said:
This article could have been written about my mother. She was very much a “crunchy con” until she tried to home remedy her cancer symptoms and died too young.

What’s different this time around is that the “barbarians” would be perfectly happy to leave agrarian religious communities alone (e.g. the Amish) so long as those communities don’t cost the barbarians money (e.g. by demanding barbarian services.) The problem isn’t that “crunchy cons” couldn’t live apart from the “barbarians,” it’s that the crunchy cons couldn’t stand the social marginalization that comes with being Amish-ified. They want to be the ones in charge; they want their beliefs to be the norm, and they want other groups to have to leave mainstream society in order to live the way they want. (They also rely on the barbarian’s services)
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No.

The barbarians will not be content with leaving conservatives alone, as long as the conservatives don’t cost them money. In the US educators and politicians have often gone to court, or passed measures, to attempt to restrict, eventually eliminate home schooling and private schools.

Even when religious social agencies ask for no public money at all, the barbarians have used regulatory power, inventing new regulations when necessary, to make it harder for Christian agencies or Christian counselors to meet with their own people. They are constantly trying to eliminate any confidentiality provision for the sacrament of confession. It is only a matter of time before no clergyman will dare try to counsel anyone unless they have a graduate degree from secular accredited counseling program.
 
This is a very good article. A combination of Benedict and the cultivation of an enclave of Christian life is key, while at the same time going out and confronting the evils of the world like Boniface and bringing as many people into the Kingdom of God as possible.

May God bless you all! 🙂
 
commenter said:
No.

The barbarians will not be content with leaving conservatives alone, as long as the conservatives don’t cost them money. In the US educators and politicians have often gone to court, or passed measures, to attempt to restrict, eventually eliminate home schooling and private schools.

Even when religious social agencies ask for no public money at all, the barbarians have used regulatory power, inventing new regulations when necessary, to make it harder for Christian agencies or Christian counselors to meet with their own people. They are constantly trying to eliminate any confidentiality provision for the sacrament of confession. It is only a matter of time before no clergyman will dare try to counsel anyone unless they have a graduate degree from secular accredited counseling program.
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I mean, I know of some regulations that were passed because christian agencies were misrepresenting themselves or providing false information (i.e. were acting fraudulently.) I also know some states have more paperwork requirements than others when it comes to private or home schooling. I also know that some countries (e.g. Ireland) have attempted to make priests mandatory reporters even in the confessional (i.e. they are required to report sexual abuse of children.)

Now its fine if you think priests should be able to keep sexual abuse secret, and that homeschooling should be completely unregulated, and that agencies should be able to misrepresent their services so long as they are Christians. But not many other people will think that way. And so if you want to have those things, you actually have to go full-Amish. You actually need to go live on farms off by yourselves where the only people who will be effected by the fraud, deregulation, and cover ups will be the people who are there willingly and who believe that those things are good.
 
It is a good read… I think that Rod, the author of The Benedict Option, wouldn’t disagree with anything in it. In fact, one of the “points” of the Benedict Option is to make sure the faith survives in a form that is potent enough to have the ability to change the culture, and he never calls for a “retreat.”

As to how we can balance the two… I think God has always handled that in calling different members of His Body into different roles, even as He does now. Some are called to form families, some are called to serve the body in particular roles in the public sphere, some to apologetics, etc… but I think the key is having an actual community base from which to fully live out a Christian life in Christian culture.

Yes, those outside of the Christian culture are always going to be suspect of those inside. It kinda goes with the territory. There are those that see the government in the role of God, or “god” rather. They trust the government even though it is ran by people just as capable of corruption, manipulation, and lying as every human is capable of. True Christians follow the laws of their land up to the point they contradict God’s ways, and they make good citizens.

But, if the secular culture gets too bad, you will indeed see Christians being hunted down in a much more forward way than they are now. So, you still need good Christians who are called to do so to be lawyers, accountants, plumbers, mechanics, etc… Those who can serve inside the community and those who can serve outside of it in a defensive posture.
 
Good comments, everyone. When I read the article I had already passed through the “hunker down and form our own community” kind of thinking. Not that it wouldn’t be nice, but like those who want to go to other planets in the hopes of setting up a new utopia, sadly, we would merely be taking our faults and sins with us. As the old saying goes: “Wherever go are there you are.” 😉

It’s good to have a base from which to draw strength, of course. Such as good, solid families, parishes, and communities that want what’s best for all, not merely for this particular group or the other. Unfortunately, our society has become so fragmented into such groups that trying to communicate between them is impossible. No one wants to listen to reason or truth. They all just want to live within their insular group and pretend that all others must accept their group as supremely right about everything. We Christians have to guard against being superior all the while trying to reach out to others in love, for we know we have the truth–not because we’re so brilliant, but because we have Christ’s Church, which is infallible.

So, we must be “ambassadors for Christ,” as St. Paul put, it in a world that is distrustful, insulated, isolated, and on the verge of destroying itself due to indifferentism and relativism–two of the most deadly isms out there. For unlike isms such as communism or socialism there can be no determining factor for the role of government or even personal behavior. We’re in a very difficult time in human history–the outcome I probably won’t see at my age, but one we all need to take on–in the love of God, in order to safe our people from their own worst desires. We have what fulfills every desire. It’s our duty to share that–as God allows and his grace enables us to.
 
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