BAPTISTS OPTING FOR THE BENEDICT OPTION ??? YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING, BUT YOU ARE NOT !!!

Posted on May 4, 2017 by abyssum

Evangelicals Being A Creative Minority

By ROD DREHER • May 3, 2017, 11:38 PM
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A reader e-mails the most personally encouraging thing I’ve read in a while. I’ve edited it slightly at her request to protect her privacy:

FWIW, the Christ-following Evangelicals in our neck of the woods [the South], likely more right than left, do think the The Benedict Option is relevant, valid, and important.  So important that our thoughtful pastoral leadership, mostly comprised of gentlemen in their mid-30s, are convening a Ben-Op discussion group with a small cadre of Evangelical professors  to discuss what this means for us — personally and collectively — as a community of faith.

This is a Southern Baptist church–a Southern Baptist church that incorporates the reading of OT, NT, and the Epistles–as well as Corporate Confession of Sin–into its weekly Sunday liturgy.  (You might not know this, but that is not the usual MO for traditional Southern Baptist churches).

I know of several other Ben-Op discussion groups that have or will be sprouting up in our area.

Do know that despite the many ostriches with their heads in the sand, people are listening.  And discussing.  And praying.  And, prayerfully, taking action.

Thank you so very much for this news, friend. A journalist asked me in an interview the other day what led me to write this book. I told him that more than anything else, I wanted to do my part in making it possible for my children, and my grandchildren, and their descendants, to hold on to the faith through the very difficult times we’re in now, and that are to come. And I want to help make it possible for other Christians to do the same.

What’s more, I am convinced that this is a project that is going to require the friendship and cooperation of all faithful small-o orthodox Christians. It cheers me up immensely to hear from readers like this one, and to know that the book I’ve written has planted a seed. We are going to have to be a “creative minority” in this post-Christian nation, and it sounds like the Bible-believing Evangelicals in that part of the world are well on their way to figuring out what that means for them in their own place, coming out of their own particular tradition.

Thank you, friends. Let us help each other, in prayer and otherwise. Please write to let me know what you’re thinking about all this after you’ve met. There are a lot of us who are eager to learn from you.

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 Responses to Evangelicals Being A Creative Minority

  2. pitchfork says:
    May 4, 2017 at 2:55 pm

    Rod, in case you haven’t seen this…

    “Opting for Benedict”
    https://irishrover.net/2017/05/opting-for-benedict/

    Not a review, exactly, but certainly an affirmation of your central thesis.

  3. Donny says:
    May 4, 2017 at 7:02 pm

    Rod,

    I don’t think the Ben Op is catching on in my Eastern Orthodox parish. There is much to agree with in your book, and most of what I disagree with others view as quibbling. But at least in our parish we don’t view ourselves missing much of what you describe as essential. Community? We spent some fourteen services together during Holy Week and have at least one communal meal weekly throughout the year, and sometimes two. Church discipline? Just try approaching the Chalice if you haven’t been to confession in a long time or if you’ve sinned publicly. Counterculture and identity? Alethos Anesti! Is that cake vegan?

    I guess what I’m saying is that those with strong, observant parishes with strong traditions probably don’t view themselves as needing the Benedict Option as much as others you write for. Because to a great extent, we already have it.

    Now what you have to say about education, we’d all have to be crazy to disagree with. I quibble with your exclusive focus on a subtype of Christian homeschooling. But what we have is priceless, and passing that down should be an encompassing life goal.

    But those with strong traditional parishes–we are the very fortunate.

    [NFR: You are very fortunate indeed! Seems to me that everybody is on a spectrum of some sort. There are always ways to strengthen our spiritual discipline. — RD]

 

About abyssum

I am a retired Roman Catholic Bishop, Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi, Texas
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1 Response to BAPTISTS OPTING FOR THE BENEDICT OPTION ??? YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING, BUT YOU ARE NOT !!!

  1. jicollinson says:
    May 5, 2017 at 2:22 am

    Doesn’t surprise me that they would be. Anyone with any Christian identity will be forced to increasingly separate themselves from the anti-Christian society as it becomes increasingly anti-Christian, and go out from it & congregate with fellow Christians. All this requires is a strong sense of identity, together with a strong alienation from mainstream society. I know of white nationalists online who talk of wanting to make their own white-only colonies. It’s the same principle.

    Donny, I haven’t read Dreher’s book itself, so I may not know all the details of his idea, but surely at work (and your children at school) are surrounded, at least to some extent, by a pagan, anti-Christian culture. So there would still be reason for making small Christian colonies – so that the people you are working with, and that your children are growing up, aren’t pagans.

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