Rod Dreher wants you to know he's like C. S. Lewis

He does this in a recent post by plucking a quote from the first review of his Dante book by the Englewood Review of Books. But here's what makes this particular act of self-pleasuring by Rod interesting.

Unlike his usual, merely bolded UPDATEs, in this one he adds an extra H3 HTML tag to boost the size of the font even further.

Here is how that looks with the caret marks ( < > ) of normal code replaced by square brackets ( [ ] ) so that you can see the actual coding from the page:

[h3][strong]UPDATE:[/strong] [a href="http://erb.kingdomnow.org/rod-dreher-how-dante-can-save-your-life-feature-review/"]The Englewood Review of Books considers [em]How Dante. [/em][/a]Excerpt:[/h3]

 Why the extra self-attention? To highlight this gem:

If as a moral and spiritual writer Dreher is not yet the equal of, say, C. S. Lewis, parts of this book are as profound and moving as Lewis’s own memoir A Grief Observed. No mean feat, that.

Who knew? Our Rod Dreher cruising at C. S. Lewis altitudes of greatness?

Commenter DS sticks a fork in this flatulence:

C.S. Lewis comparisons? Perhaps I need to find a less distinguished blogger. Air getting all thin up in here.

Sorry, Rod. If you have to lard on H3 tags to draw attention to comparisons of yourself to C. S. Lewis, you're not anywhere close to being in Lewis' league, you're just another self-promoting south Louisiana religious hustler with megalomaniacal delusions of grandeur.

Broken Home? Check...

The first guess I make when I hear about a mass-murder is that the shooter is from a broken home. I'm not always right, but more often than not; it turns out I'm right in Dylann Roof's case.

The man suspected of fatally shooting nine people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday, was given a gun by his father as a 21st birthday present in April, his uncle told Reuters on Thursday.

Law enforcement officers were at the home of Dylann Roof’s mother on Thursday morning, the uncle, Carson Cowles, said in an interview.

WSJ confirms.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... you ditched your wife and your kid(s) turned out fine? No thanks to you, buddy.

“ . . . ”

KDW overtrumps the "witless ape". Excerpts:

The one thing worse than Trump’s vague horsepucky is his specific horsepucky, i.e., his 1999 plan to impose a one-time tax — everybody knows how good Washington is about “one time” uses of power — on the wealth of all high-net-worth individuals and institutions. A 14.25 percent tax, he calculated, would retire the national debt. And what about institutions that don’t have 14.25 percent of their net worth in ready cash — to take a totally random example, let’s say a poorly run real-estate concern with a lot of illiquid assets and unmanageable debt payments eating up all its ready cash?

 

“ . . . ”

Trump says that he cannot discuss the details of his agenda because of — his word — “enemies.” Who are these enemies?

 

“ . . . ”

 

Bwa-ha-ha. Yeah, totally random.

 

The problem with messiah complexes is that there’s no way to know whether you are going to rise on the third day unless somebody crucifies you. Trump has announced, and I say we get started on that.

Hilarious. Despite his success and business savvy, as a leader Donald Trump is a complete goof, and I hope he doesn't become heir to the Ron Paul loser crowd.

 

Phrase Benedict Option absent from article about actual Benedictines renewing culture

This is a really good article about the incredible restoration going on in Norcia, the birthplace of St. Benedict. Very timely also, and it also contains a plethora of phrases relevant to Christianity and Catholicism in particular. Among these are New Evangelization, restoration of monastic culture, scholastic education, Gregorian chant, ressourcment, traditional monastic horarium and dynamic renewal. Real positive ideas which all have meanings.

Note that there are no mentions of the so-called Benedict Option in this article anymore than there are mentions of unicorns, global warming, Santa's elves or queer theory. Also conspicuously absent is the cute abbreviation BenOp which is preferred by most of the BOppers out there.

RTWT; here are a few interesting paragraphs:

In addition, the monks have engaged in many cultural endeavors. Looking back to the mandate of Vatican II, this may be the best way to understand the call for “adaption.” As I have written elsewhere, Cardinal Pell described their brewery, Birra Nursia, as a genuine expression of the New Evangelization. The monks see the brewery as an apostolate for engaging non-believers and though their brewery has only been around for a few years (since 2012) it has had a large impact, even being served at the last papal conclave!

...

The monastery’s new CD, Benedicta: Marian Chants from Norcia, was produced in partnership with de Montfort Music, a highly successful label, producing 3 of the top five classical albums for 2014. The CD presents many traditional Marian hymns and antiphons, some of which will be readily recognizable, but what stands out to me is that the CD also includes an original composition. This, once again, reflects the creative and dynamic renewal of the Norcia monks. The text and music of the original piece, Nos Qui Christi Iugum (“We Who Have Received Christ’s Yoke”), were composed by Fr. Basil Nixen, the monastery’s choirmaster.

I would encourage everyone to purchase the CD, not only for its beauty and inducement to contemplation, but also to support the great work of renewal undertaken by the Monastery of St. Benedict of Norcia. We all have a great work ahead of us to rebuild the foundations of our civilization. In this work, we will all be carried by the prayers and labors of contemplatives. Their renewal, the renewal of the monastic foundation, may just leaven the whole project of rebuilding. And where better to start, but in the very home of the great builder of the foundations of Western civilization, St Benedict?

That sounds like a good CD to buy if you want to support these good monks. I'm sure the beer kicks, too, but I'm stocked for a few more weeks, thanks.

Real monks doing real stuff making good music, good beer and praying their asses off. I have no doubt that these men are having a real effect on the world by their prayers and actions, their ora et labora. My guess is they don't have a lot of time to discuss imaginary places, persons or things like the Benedict Option. That exercise wouldn't really fit under either category, although maybe a Latin scholar could devise a quick phrase which translates roughly to "talking about praying tomorrow most likely, thinking about working later on and definitely planning to write a book someday."

*NSFW* Lou Reed: I wanna be black

Every since the whole Racial Dolezal thing came out this song has been going through my head and I've been laughing.

If you are offended by, say, The Jerk, please do not listen to this song.

You've been warned.



Hey, KAJ is down with Rachel Dolezal identifying as black, so give it a rest all you tight-assed whi' people.

Liberals always get a pass for saying racial stuff. Lenny Bruce is lionized by NPR at least once a year, Ted Danson is famously defended by Whoopi Goldberg, etc. It's all very clever, you know, social commentary when liberals get racial. It's not insensitive at all.

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.

Safe Spaces for Benedict Option BOppers

Are you a Benedict Optioneer, or, the abbreviation I feel best captures your essence, a BOpper?

Then you'll need a Safe Space in which to do your thing, whether it's to thoughtfully discuss the many possibilities of what Rod Dreher's Benedict Option™ could even be on the Internet - oh, and for that you'll also need an Internet and someone to keep it up, won't you - or simply to pray hard, eat crawfish, drink beer, and keep singing, because "as long as you can still make a roux, everything’s going to be alright" anyway (because, as everyone else knows, this whole charade you've been gulled into is nothing more than a marketing campaign for an unwritten book).

Of course, you won't be capable of creating and maintaining that Safe Space yourself, sillies. Don't be ridiculous. If you were that strong-willed and capable, you wouldn't be retreating into playing Dungeons & Dragons for Christians (D&D/C) in a vain attempt to overcome your post-Modern ennui, would you, you would just be another real Christian making his way through life as he finds it.

But since you are one of those fluffy, fantasizing BOpper lambs instead, let me introduce you to two guys who will be creating and maintaining that Safe Space within which you can safely let your eyes roll back in your head as you await that time after the collapse when you will miraculously emerge from your fantasy and restore moral order on Earth.

The one on the left is Mr. Police Officer (po-LEECE OFF-ih-sir) and the one on the right is Mr. Soldier (SOUL-djer).

Neither of them have the luxury of chatting on the Internet between eating crawfish, drinking beer and singing, because they have real and important jobs to do, little lambs, which is to keep your self-indulgent, post-Modern Christian hippie asses safe at the risk of losing their own while you complain about how the food out there is so ordinary, the choices on TV are so poor, and how everything that's wrong with your children is someone else's fault while you play Dungeons & Dragons for Christians as a way to escape the horror of it all.

Don't you worry, little BOpper lambs, they'll be there to keep your Safe Spaces safe while you await that far eschatological moment in history reserved just for you.

And while you wait, look! I've created a badge to honor you, special little BOpper lambs, yes you!

Unlike real Christians who throughout history simply played the cards they were dealt and soldiered through on their faith and will until this glorious moment to give birth to you finally, finally arrived, I know how you so detest the "culture" that you find yourself so cruelly born into. And so to signify your rejection, I've enclosed that hateful landscape in a big red no-no circle and slash. I've even distilled your essence into a motto for you.

Sleep tight, little BOpper lambs, and then awake, refreshed, to pray hard, eat crawfish, drink beer, sing, and play another round of Dungeons & Dragons for Christians on the Internet with your friends. Mr. Police Officer and Mr. Soldier will be there to protect you from your enemies and keep you safe, and now you even have your very own badge to represent you.

Rod Dreher's Benedict Option™: what people like you are saying

Christians thoughtfully considering Rod Dreher's Benedict Option™

Don't you be left out or, even worse, Left Behind. Are you considering Rod Dreher's Benedict Option™ like your fellow Christians pictured above? It's what the popular, topical Christian is doing these days, you know.

UPDATE (as they say): This just in: residents of Rod Dreher's old East Dallas stomping grounds awoke this morning to find hand written notes warning of the end of the world affixed to their doors. Although the notes were ostensibly from Jesus, one respondent clearly notes that this was "not Jesus' style".

To date, Rod Dreher's efforts to invent and promote a subject for him to write another book about himself about has largely been confined to the Internet and those communities whose credulity makes a Snopes a perennially valuable online asset, but to drive interest in apocalyptic fearmongering deep into the heartland, a more individually tailored, one-on-one effort may be needed as well.

With not only individual messages of outreach but ones personalized to the point of being hand written as well, Rod Dreher is certainly to be commended for going that extra mile, if indeed these thoughtful missives are a part of that additional tactical effort.