Rod, dedicate your Benedict Option book proceeds to Norcia
We shall surely know Rod Dreher as a good and decent Christian man when we hear the monks of the Monastery of St. Benedict in Norcia, Italy give their public thanks to him for having donated all proceeds of his Benedict Option book to rebuild their earthquake ravaged places of worship.
Not only do the monks feature prominently in the writing of Rod's current book for sale, but in his blog posts - heavily labeled with self-promotional "Benedict Option" tags - he informs us just how heartbreaking their situation is, from
Norcia: The Basilica Is Destroyed
to
Every Church In Norcia Is Gone
Every.Church.In.Norcia.Is.Gone.
And yet, with preorders, Rod Dreher is already collecting a rich revenue stream from having used the monks of Norcia as living examples of the thesis he wishes to promulgate in that very same book.
Return their Christian charity and service to you, Rod, and pledge publicly to dedicate all proceeds from The Benedict Option to the rebuilding of Norcia and its churches.
Don't just use them and discard them when you're done with them as you did with Father Matthew Harrington, the Orthodox priest late of St. John the Theologian Mission in St. Francisville, abandoned destitute, penniless and unemployed, with an expensive special needs child to care for.
Do now for the monks of Norcia what you should have done then: instead of offering superficial, lip-service prayers, show you truly mean it by digging deep into the wealth you are piling on top of your million dollar Little Way book advance with the help of a roaring bull market and a savvy financial advisor like Chris Currin:
We most certainly didn’t have a lot of money to invest when we found Chris Currin. In part because of Chris Currin’s wise stewardship of our resources, we have significantly more to invest now.
So now, Rod, when you not only have significantly more to invest but also a new river of book sale proceeds beginning to flow in into that vast lake Chris Currin is husbanding for you, invest for awhile in God's works instead of Caesar's.
Publicly pledge that you will dedicate all proceeds from The Benedict Option to the rebuilding of Norcia and its churches.
This, in turn, can only help your book sales and thus help the monks even more.
Of course, I suppose you could spend it on food at Torchy's Tacos and other delicious things, as is your habit.
But maybe, just maybe, this is the moment to think beyond your belly and put your money where your mouth is.Or where it should be.
From Dreher's Every Church in Norcia is Gone post:
ReplyDeleteEvery church in the town is destroyed, but the monks survived because they headed for the hills outside of town when the first earthquake hit back in August. Our poor, brave, faithful monks of Norcia are a sign to the whole church in ways I did not anticipate.
Yet, of course, Dreher keeps insisting that the BO is NOT a withdrawal from the world. I'm so confused...
The Benedict Option is whatever its Dear Leader says it is, whenever he says so:
DeleteWe have it coming. We really do. America started the war in the Middle East that has destroyed so many lives. America is leading the world towards the destruction of the family, and calling it virtue. And on and on. As Livy said of the late Roman Republic, “We can endure neither our vices nor their cure.”
Consider the sign of Norcia. The town is desolate now, depopulated because its people have fled in fear of further earthquakes. Its churches, including the basilica of St. Benedict, are ruins. Spiritually speaking, this is us. And yet, because the monks took the early warning signs seriously (e.g., the August quake) and relocated to the hills just outside the town, their lives were spared from the later quake that brought their basilica crumbling to the ground. In fact, not a single one of the Norcini lost his or her life, because they had all moved to safer ground, even though it meant embracing a harder way of living.
Now the monks have survived, and are present to rebuild amid the ruins. And us? Let he who has eyes to see, see. People are going to laugh at Michael Brendan Dougherty for his column. I’m not laughing. He’s brave to say what a lot of us are thinking. And he’s right.
And those with eyes to see see things the way Dear Leader sees them. Or it may be necessary for the loving Benedict Option community to reeducate those eyes.
For those uncertain about my second link, this is what thought-made-fetish, aka an idée fixe - as with the Benedict Option - looks like in application.
DeleteJames C. says:
ReplyDeleteOctober 31, 2016 at 12:56 pm
Good Lord, Rod. Is there still time to add a new epilogue to your book?
[NFR: There is. I just did. — RD]
And our working boy wonders why no one can comprehend his concept of the Benedict Option. Perhaps he should try not adapt it to every freaking current event that comes down the pike. Before he starting on the book he used to complain that people were criticizing something that was inchoate, pretty soon he will be complaining that his critics don't understand that the Benedict Option is protean.
I can't think of any other writer who talks such a good game of stability and tradition yet, in their personal life, is so obviously ruled by whim, passion, desire, and their own personal prejudices. Miley Cyrus sleeps with anything that moves and she's a slut; David Bowie sleeps with anything that moves (including that pinnacle of masculine energy, Mick Jagger) and he's a transgressive artist who's really a conservative at heart. Why? Because Rod likes the "music" of one and not the other.
-Anonymous Maximus
and now despite the ravaging of Norcia he is back to ranting about gays again .... God I wish someone would uncover the grindr profile or interview the rent boys from New Orleans or the college associate from his LSU days.
ReplyDeleteThat would be poetic justice, but I'd settle for a very public spat with one of his "traveling companions".
Delete-The Man From K Street
Maybe Met Jonah will finally stop lying
Delete"Publicly pledge that you will dedicate all proceeds from The Benedict Option to the rebuilding of Norcia and its churches." Do not hold your breath on this happening.
ReplyDeleteStill, always good for a profile-lifting Benedict Option tag. Someone has to sell the T-shirts at Golgotha, might as well be Rod.
DeleteThose who keep clearly in mind that the Alt-Christian Benedict Option map is not the Christian terrain won't fall for this suggestive upward association. As for others, well, that's why God made free will, I suppose.
"Publicly pledge that you will dedicate all proceeds from The Benedict Option to the rebuilding of Norcia and its churches."
DeleteThis assumes that Dreher will have and proceeds to donate... ;)
Managing expectations:
ReplyDeleteThe Benedict Option will never be a failsafe option, because it cannot be. To expect too much from it is to set oneself up for bitterness and disillusionment.
I think we're safe from that over here at EQE.
It was shameful what DreRod did to father Matthew...Father Matthew was enticed to Louisiana and then dumbed like so much used goods.The " Mission" is dying and for some odd reason could not attract members other than DreRod's family...DreRod is a user and I have a feeling this book will fail..Father Matthew moved to Washington and is landing on his feet..You know things were creepy because DreRod didn't blather on and on about it..
ReplyDeletehttp://democracyjournal.org/magazine/city-of-rod/
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! Thank you, Anonymous.
DeleteApparently the BO is "The New Christian Paradigm"
DeleteFunny, I've always been taught that Jesus Christ is the new Christian paradigm.
Guess there's a new prophet in town.
I'm thinking it's time to reactivate this blog!
DeleteMuch as I hate to admit it, this is unfair to Rod. He is a professional writer. Not only his, but his wife's and kids' welfare depend on his writing income. Sure, it would be a nice and fitting gesture for him to give some cash to the monastery he purports to love so much, but to ask him to donate ALL of the proceeds of a book that took him two years to write seems a bit much.
ReplyDelete