The Benedict Option: "Here’s Why It Didn’t Work"
I report. You decide.
Libby Anne in her own words.
I will point out that, if people still aren't sure whether your name is "Rod" or "Rob", there may be a persistent leak in your message. First, be sure the basics are nailed down, then save Western Civilization.
She pretty much sums up how vacuous is Rod's constant whining that we "don't understand; that's not what [he] meant at all. . . ." She illustrates the fundamental errors of Rod's BO project, as I see it: he's startlingly ignorant about the complexity of the many Protestantisms in America, which have profoundly shaped American culture, for a guy who wants to tell any Protestant who will listen how to do the BO; he does not understand even the recent history of how people have tried things like the BO; and he is on a fool's errand trying to become the go-to guy on how so many different Christian churches and traditions are supposed to do the BO, even though many in those traditions look at others among those traditions as heterodox at best, non-Christian at worst.
ReplyDeleteHe decries the mushy ecumenism of "MTD" and yet, as a serial convert less than 10 years mature in his current church, makes it his project to essentially promote the elision of differences among confessions in the name of "saving" Christianity in our time.
Look, I'm also Orthodox, and I'm also in favor of different Christian bodies doing their best to get along, be good to each other, and find areas of agreement and cooperation (many would think I'm way too liberal on this front), but I think it's a bad idea for Rod to take on the self-appointed role of telling other people how to live. That way lies disaster, so many disasters.
I wonder if Rod's ever read some of the sermons of St. John Chrysostom, the ones in which he excoriates people in the congregation for their worldly ways, the kind we often hear called "nominally Christian" in our time. But he didn't suggest that the "good" Christians in the church withdraw, or sort-of withdraw, whatever it is Rod prescribes, and start some new community. He just told everyone to clean up their act and be the Church already, here and now, dammit. Anyone who wanted to heed that call had more than enough to do without trying to recruit others into a parachurch movement to, ostensibly, get it done
BTW, I liked the criticism in a recent post here of Rod's lame idea that removing non-Catholic kids from Catholic schools is somehow "thickening" Catholic BenOptitude. Oy.
Anyone who wanted to heed that call had more than enough to do without trying to recruit others into a parachurch movement to, ostensibly, get it done.
DeleteExactly, as I've said before: " If I was doing everything I could be doing 100%, or even 90%, and there was evidence that something was still missing, maybe I'd buy a quart or two of Benedict Option to throw in the tank. (If it existed.)"
he does not understand even the recent history of how people have tried things like the BO
DeleteOh man. YES. (My goddaughter's erstwhile "charismatic covenant community" springs to mind.)
In fact, your entire comment is soooo spot-on. And boy, can you write!!!