A prominent Christian conservative says it’s time for Christians to withdraw from modern, secular American life.
If you’ve ever wondered if American culture has drifted into a consumerist, values-free, community-starved dead-end, Rod Dreher is right there with you. If you’re Christian, he’s got a piece of advice: get out. Retreat, like the monks of the Middle Ages. You don’t have to go to a monastery or the hills, he says, but it’s time to build an ark of community and intentional living against a flood of secular culture. A lot of Christians and others will roll their eyes. This hour On Point, Rod Dreher says build an ark. — Tom Ashbrook
Guests
Rod Dreher, senior editor at the American Conservative. Author of the new book, “ The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation.” Also author of “ Crunchy Cons” and “ The Little Way Of Ruthie Leming.” ( @roddreher)
Andrew Sullivan, political commentator and writer at large for New York Magazine. Former editor for the New Republic and writer for the New York Times Magazine. Author of “ The Conservative Soul” and “ Virtually Normal.” ( @sullydish)
From Tom’s Reading List
Crux: The ‘Benedict Option’ is not enough — “It’s hard to argue with the initiatives Dreher is pushing for: A stronger, more vibrant sense of discipleship; churches ready and willing to suffer for the Faith; an anti-political politics, as an alternative to conventional culture-war politics; a more robust form of Christian commitment shaping how we live, how we marry and raise families, how we educate our children and young adults and adults, how we deal with the ever expanding regime of technology.”
America: What might Pope Francis think about ‘The Benedict Option?’ A new talk gives clues. — ” There may be a degree of risk in engaging a culture that is hostile to you and your tradition. There is a natural fear that you will jeopardize your own faith and its tradition. Nonetheless, we are called to turn away from that fear toward joy.”
New York: The Reactionary Temptation — “We are living in an era of populism and demagoguery. And yes, there’s racism and xenophobia mixed into it. But what we are also seeing, it seems to me, is the manifest return of a distinctive political and intellectual tendency with deep roots: reactionism.”
Read An Excerpt Of “The Benedict Option” By Rod Dreher
Array
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