“Yeah, but as soon as the church is obscure and hip again they’ll come rushing back.”
Some people try to make Christianity more relevant by accepting various disordered yet fashionable lifestyles like homosexuality. Other people try to make it more relevant by withdrawing from society and into a to-be-defined type of bunker. One might be morally worse, but neither ends up working.
What Eva the Soup Ladler says is so true. Christianity is like, you know, that cup of coffee for your soul you just have to have, but not exactly or even close although some people will try to tell you both. At first, when Starbucks first opened, I thought Wow!, this is like Christianity, you know? Complete. Something for everyone, from plain to like an ice cream sundae with a great buzz. But then it kept spreading and spreading and there were stores everywhere, even inside one another, and then even old people started coming and I thought What? Like right. Where is the coffee now? Where is the coolness? Where is my tingle and my buzz in the middle of all these people???
ReplyDeleteSo I started looking into Cold Brew, right? None of those bitter acids or oils or strong, you know, brown flavors. Much more mellow. And little by little I got my tingle back. I got my buzz back. And then I thought, Wow! What if I took it to the next level and got rid of the coffee entirely. Got rid of the whole coffee producing complex. Got rid of all those annoying, distracting people with their own bitter acids and oils and brown stuff and brought it back to just the pure essentials, just me and my cup. And that's made all the difference.
Zoëöe Hopper
Solo Barista
nice.
DeleteLOL. Who are you, anon? You are far too smart and funny to remain incognito. You deserve a byline!
DeleteHi, Diane, that's so sweet! I'm really not incognito though I'm just me, but I will tell you this because I know you're going to ask me anyway because people always do, how does Zoëöe pronounce her name? Well, it's not "Zoh-wee" I can tell you that, I hate that don't you? No, what you do is hold your mouth just about like Eva the Soup Ladler is doing in that picture like it was a cake decorating bag and be sure to hold it firm like that now with your lips parted just a little bit and then you try to say "Zoo!" as loud as possible. That's all there is to it. That's me, Zoëöe. I call myself a Solo Barista because like I said I'm not down on the whole group thing anymore, coffee or Christianity. Just me and my cup.
DeleteZoëöe Hopper
Solo Barista
Meanwhile, Dreher is apparently trying to keep up with the Onion by self-parodying the so-called Benedict Option (emphasis added by me):
ReplyDeleteBut we have to play the long game here — and that includes, as Russell indicates, devising and implementing material forms of the Benedict Option that allow us to support our communities over the long term. The Benedict Option cannot require a dropping away from politics entirely, if only because we have to defend our right to be left alone. But it does demand a repositioning of orthodox Christian thought and action away from politics and toward building and thickening Christian culture within the church, as it has grown dangerously thin, even as we orthodox Christians have been chronically focused on politics and law as our protectors.
So first, while we still don't know (nor will we never know) what the Benedict Option really is, we now find out that it is incorporeal -- we will now be "devising and implementing material forms" of it.
Second, until now we have heard metaphors for the Benedict Option. But now we have a new guidepost, namely the straw man of "chronic[] focus[] on politics and law as our protectors". Funny, I've heard lots of homilies (Catholic too, which qualifies for small 'o' orthodox to Dreher), but not a one has had a mention much less a focus on "politics and law as our protectors". But we'll get right to work on that "thickening". Yeah, you betcha.
Oh well, Dreher got to include not one but two selfies in that post. Mission accomplished.
Pik, I'm just seeing this as another among an infinitude of mutations of the BOdromeda Strain to meet the challenges of its environment: point out a flaw in Dreher's reasoning - what keeps BOers safe while the world goes to HELL? - and bzzt, zing, clickety, and genes rearrange themselves and now "The Benedict Option cannot require a dropping away from politics entirely, if only because we have to defend our right to be left alone" - BO 2.0.1.5.
DeleteLike one of those irritating little dogs your friends have that start humping your leg as soon as you step into the living room, every single grunt uttered by any human being on the planet has now become fair game to be mounted by Dreher and incorporated into the BO brand. Ross Douthat say this and now he's talking about the BO. Pierre Garcon the bread seller in France mentions crust and it becomes a metaphor for the BO. ISIS tweets about Dreher and they're "inversely invoking" the BO or some such nonsense. High in the Andes a toothless woman in a bowler hat is living out the Benedict Option by selling coca leaves and eating guinea pigs.
If we thought TLWORL and HDCSYL becoming conjoined marketing twins was creepy, welcome to the new liquid metal Terminator of Dreher brand narcisso-solipcism, the Benedict Option.
It is getting so stupid. The other day he ended a post with "It's not either/or, it's both and." Uhh...yahh! that's what we've been saying ya big nut. Everyone knows pray like everything depended on God, act like everything depended on you or the countless variations. St. Therese: "Some give by going to the missions, others go by giving to the missions." St. Paul: "If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?" And so on, and so on....
DeleteI feel like we're in a win-win position with regard to our ongoing argument against Dreherism. If he gives up on this book, good. If he actually goes ahead and publishes it, even better. More exposure for his pure insanity, plus it won't really convince anyone unless those people are so stupid that society will be well rid of them.
I'm beginning to get the sense that his online community and colleagues may be starting to just humor him. It's no skin off their nose, and if what's most important to them is access to Dreher, not truth, well, tell us some more about your invisible parakeet friends, Rod. What an interesting concept, really, being able to talk to animals, and parakeets are so cheerful, aren't they. Which do you favor more, the green and yellow ones or the bluish ones?
DeleteAnd of course this could go on for days, reciprocal blog stroke for reciprocal blog stroke.
...right! everyone can get a free bonus point or a link or a high-five with Dreher just for saying something like "Rod Dreher's Benedict Option" or "That Benedict Option that Rod Dreher is always talking about" or "Good ole Rod and his amazing, mysterious Benedict Option."
Delete