The Benedict Option

What is it? It seems to have emerged from Rod Dreher’s blog. The Wall Street Journal quotes him as describing it thus:

    “… an inchoate phenomenon in which Christians adopt a more consciously countercultural stance toward our post-Christian mainstream culture.” Much as St. Benedict laid the groundwork for a later resurgence of Christian society in Europe by leaving Rome and founding the monastic movement in the early sixth century, Mr. Dreher argues, traditional Christians should partially withdraw from the culture, seeking to live moral lives together in like-minded communities.

WSJ goes on:

    … the recent Supreme Court decision establishing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges seems to have made many Christians particularly receptive to Mr. Dreher’s idea. The response has been so strong that he now says his next book will be on the Benedict Option.

I mostly support the Supreme Court decision, but I can see that a withdrawal from the political stage might to a reasonable (perhaps even attractive) option for many committed Christians who disagree with such things.