What the inventor of The Benedict Option is doing these days
I’ve been listening over and over these days to “Bitch,” a cut from the Rolling Stones’ 1971 album Sticky Fingers. Its power is feral, snarling; it is a perfect expression of masculine sexual potency, which makes it a near-perfect rock song.
Yes, together with his favorite blog commenter and sidekick, Milwaukee BDSM impressario Charles "Uncle Chuckie" Cosimano, pioneers like Rod and Chuck will soon be leading Christians with even lower standards disgusted with today's culture of tawdry sexuality and sleazy, pandering book marketing to a quiet, safe place beside still waters where they can buy Rod's next book directly, as soon as they successfully hype enough interest in the project for him to write it.
Are you shameless, desperate, or simply mentally impaired enough to follow them? Of course you are.
Dreher is the Miley Cyrus of the "life of the mind".
ReplyDeleteBesides revealing to all concerned that his BO has no discernible index of values beyond Rod's aesthetic urges of the moment, I believe the comment I quoted was also intended to telegraph to the BOppers that not only is Dreher a floor wax who can write about praying longer and harder standing up than you could ever hope to, he's also a rockin' dessert topping exquisitely tuned to the most perfect expressions of masculine sexual potency.
DeleteSo while, to keep up appearances, Julie Dreher demurely takes the youngest children on a their separate, six day vacation, Rod is left to prospect for further perfect expressions of masculine sexual potency. What could he do? Where could he turn?
Oh, I know: vacationing in testosterone-drenched Italy at summer's torrid peak with a hairy gentleman of Italian descent.
That oughta do it.
Meanwhile, all you out there: quit soiling the culture for Rod and his BOppers with your questionable ways.
I was so sorely tempted to write something about Rod's oft-expressed love of masculine sexual potency, but I thought that would be below the belt (so to speak). Or how his blog sometimes reads like outtakes from script sessions for "The Ambiguously Gay Duo".
DeleteBut I think I'll just leave it at this: Rod's BO is all about Rod, all the time. Whatever Rod wants, Rod gets. He can denounce the young 'uns and their depraved sexy sex (which he'll exhaustively catalog for anyone who's interested), but Rod's allowed to expose his son to whatever masculine sexual potency he desires.
Just you don't get any ideas that you can do any such thing, o Internet Philistines!
Speaking of Internet Philistinism, I think it's high time to help Rod out with his abbreviation of the Benedict Option. "BenOp" is just too clumsy. We already know "BO" is out, so... what about the "Benedict Movement" - i.e., "Rod's BM"?
DeleteNo, that's not much better... what about the "Benedict Imperative"? Then people interested in it would become "BI-curious".... hmmm... so what else is there?
Benedict Society
DeleteBO is my efficient abbreviation of choice, contrary to the little fascist and his attempt to control even the language in which others speak of him by pre-establishing a more adulatory vocabulary for his contrived SimCity.
DeleteSince I do not require Dreher's approval, it is unnecessary that I bend the knee to his script.
Consider this fizzy pop rocks modernist Dreher irony: the BO is supposed to be a movement profound enough to represent a radical departure for Christians, one profound and radical enough that Dreher must write a book about it.
DeleteAnd yet, and yet: it's too much trouble to say the whole thing every time - B-e-n-e-d-i-ct O-p-t-i-o-n - really, now, between Starbucks and texting, what modern Christian has that sort of time? And so it requires its own abbreviation - to make the BO fit into the lifestyles of its would be talker abouters.
Maybe we could just start calling Him Jee.
I rather like that one of the comments below the post simply says, “Lord, grant me the Benedict Option, but not yet.”
ReplyDeletelol
DeleteI was thinking about an alternate ending to the Gospel story: Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
In the BenOp ending the young man starts going away but then he turns around and says "Wait -- could I just do the Benedict Option? Meetcha half-way??"
The second most amazing thing about the "Bitch" and "Mom's Gone" posts is that Dreher is so self-absorbed that he thinks anyone cares.
ReplyDeleteThe most amazing thing about the "Bitch" and "Mom's Gone" posts is that his commenters actually do care.
P.S. Hey, Dreher Kid, there's a universal rule you need to know: if your dad likes your music, your music isn't cool.
Oh, the commenters. They're just tripping over each other trying to sound cool. It's hilarious. Like, someone as dorky as TMatt (no offense; own the dorkiness) pointing out to Rod that, um, the guitar Lucas is pictured with is an acoustic bass, probably with a pickup, not an electric bass.
DeleteThe BO Paradox:
DeleteQ: Why should Christians consider taking the Benedict Option?
A: To escape the noisome narcisso-psycho-aesthetic culture of ressentiment and self-indulgence relentlessly generated by the inventor of the Benedict Option.
In other news, my bishop has written a pastoral letter called "Being Catholic Today: Catholic Identity in an Age of Challenge." (Non-Catholics who are also finding this an age of challenge may find much of the letter speaks to them, too.) A link to the PDF is on this page: http://www.adw.org/publications/
ReplyDeleteIt's a solid letter, albeit not particularly groundbreaking, combining catechesis, exhortation, social criticism, and even a few words of hope.
Nothing about strategic withdrawals.
I mention it here because, near the end of the letter, Cardinal Wuerl mentions " the emergence of a youthful generation whose faith is refreshingly vibrant... These young adults, women and men, provide hope for the future. One encouraging aspect of their participation in such events is their comfort level with being Catholic and being identified as Catholic. Their desire is to know more about the faith in order more fully to live it. Challenge can bring out the best in all of us. Perhaps this is what we are now
seeing."
As we have seen, fear is a primary component of the desire for a "Benedict Option." Fear doesn't come naturally to the young. We might hypothesize -- heck, I *will* hypothesize that the BOppers are older Christians whose call won't be taken up by younger Christians, even as they say, panoptically, "No, see, what they're doing *is* the Benedict Option."
Fear doesn't come naturally to the young.
DeleteAin't that the truth!
I met Donald Wuerl several times when I lived in Pittsburgh and he was the Bishop there, and I saw him in Rome coincidentally around the same time. He truly is a great man and always busied with proclaiming the gospel rather than wringing his hand about the latest news or troubling statistic. When the Master returns He's going to find the Abp. giving the devil a black eye, not securing his oxygen mask first.
DeleteFrank Herbert was right about one thing: fear is a "mind killer".
Delete...so let us remain always young....
DeleteI really do think that it was a mistake to do away with the prayers at the foot of the altar. The phrase "ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam" is so profound.
My father is 79 years old now and he still has a young attitude. He ain't scared of shit. I look at him and say "Yeah; that's how I want to be."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1fSVbBwVX8
DeleteAndrew says:
ReplyDeleteJune 17, 2015 at 3:17 pm
Rod, does pushing back against the world mean rejecting the Rolling Stones? If not, why not?
If the Rolling Stones are okay for a Benedict Option family, is hip-hop okay? They both celebrate a testosterone-laden worldview.
I still don’t get it.
... in any kind of real-world Benedict Option, there will of necessity be trade-offs people have to make....
DeleteThose trade-offs would appear to be sacrificing any sort of coherent understanding of what a BO actually might be in favor of whatever random laundry list of feature qualities generates enough of an audience to pitch a book.
DeleteI was going to begin a parody series of posts articulating the newest opaque concept within which Christians should be encouraged to address the world: Lunging.
"Basically, Lunging is a particular way that modern Christians can best meet the challenges the modern world presents them with. One can think of Lunging as a spiritual stance, but it's really much more than that, a way of being, a posture, if you will, with respect to everything with which the modern world is capable of presenting the contemporary Christian."
Kermit asks, "Is it pronounced Lunging or Lunjing?
Kermit, what a wonderful question! Although Lunging is pronounced with a soft "g", the very presence of the letters l-u-n-g are there to remind us of the central role that breath or spirit will always play in the unique stance that we Christians will now be adopting with respect to the world through Lunging.