Where the Benedict Option found its paradigm

Women Now Empowered By Everything A Woman Does*

OBERLIN, OH—According to a study released Monday, women—once empowered primarily via the assertion of reproductive rights or workplace equality with men—are now empowered by virtually everything the typical woman does.

San Diego women empower themselves by eating dinner unaccompanied by men.

"From what she eats for breakfast to the way she cleans her home, today's woman lives in a state of near-constant empowerment," said Barbara Klein, professor of women's studies at Oberlin College and director of the study. "As recently as 15 years ago, a woman could only feel empowered by advancing in a male-dominated work world, asserting her own sexual wants and needs, or pushing for a stronger voice in politics. Today, a woman can empower herself through actions as seemingly inconsequential as driving her children to soccer practice or watching the Oxygen network."

Klein said that clothes-shopping, once considered a mundane act with few sociopolitical implications, is now a bold feminist statement.

And, as we all know, Christians have only two choices:

Either it’s going to be the Benedict Option, or Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, which as we know ultimately results in a loss of the faith.

Fortunately, Rod Dreher's Benedict Option is as brilliant and universally empowering as The Onion's feminism, for it is large, it contains multitudes, and all roads lead to it:

Everybody's got an "option" these days; here's why the term #BenedictOption is the best umbrella for them all: http://t.co/VAYj21hZf1 — Rod Dreher (@roddreher) July 29, 2015

Whatever your option is, even if you're out of options, Rod Dreher's Benedict Option is the one that covers you.

Rod Dreher's Benedict Option knows you're not, bunkie. But it's got you covered, nonetheless.

Like an all-purpose, get-out-of-the-dumps spell, all you have to so is mouth the words "Benedict Option" (technically, as we see above, just "option" alone will do), and you will automatically be fighting the good fight, nurturing that consoling schadenfreude that eventually everyone else will become Caitlin Jenner just before they shoot themselves in the head, after which, if everything in the world isn't already right again, the world will immediately look to you - yes, you - to make it so. Pretty empowering, right?

But I know some of you persist in asking that terribly annoying question: just what is Rod Dreher's Benedict Option?

One person who does know what it is not is Bishop Emeritus Rene Henry Gracida of Corpus Christi, Texas, who informs us in all caps

THE BENEDICT OPTION IS NOT A RETREAT FROM WORLD, IT IS A DISENGAGEMENT FROM THE VALUES AND MORAL OPTIONS OF THE WORLD

But, troll that you are, you probably persist further and ask, well, which values and moral options of the world?

Pornography? Definitely out. Facebook, Twitter? Harder to say. The sort of outrage porn that got Noah Millman's article spiked? Required engagement.

Fortunately, except for the most heinous ones, under the umbrella of Rod Dreher's Benedict Option determining which values and moral options of the world to disengage from is quite elastically up to you - as long as you call whatever you choose to do the Benedict Option.

(As long as you keep talking up Rod's book promotion theme, you don't really think he's going to say you're not doing it right, do you?)

And does it even matter? After all, as Rod himself explains, it's your only alternative to Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. But, because it's also virtually universally inclusive, you should be okay.

Go ahead, under the umbrella of the Benedict Option - the ultimate, universal Christian self-help program - you can even hug yourself, bunkie.

As soon as you buy Rod Dreher's Benedict Option book.

A doubtless very different St. Benedict

*H/T: AOSHQ