'25 SUMMER READING LIST, #2 - "THE BENEDICT OPTION" BY ROD DREHER

I was about to write that there are few books that really inspire me, and the fact that I had no problem coming up with 25 books for this summer reading list probably means I'm easier to impress than I think (or that there are more really inspirational books than I think). Either way, "The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation" by Rod Dreher is on that list.

Allow me to confess that Dreher is more Catholic/Orthodox than I am, and several of the ideas fit that line of thinking. However, I agree with his main thought that Christians need to strengthen community with fellow believers, both by forming communities and by encouraging others.

There are not as many community-building books in this summer reading list as there are apologetics (like yesterday's book). However, I remember being in a Facebook group discussing this book and Dreher's follow-up "Live Not By Lies" and reading a question about if we're reading any other books on community. At that time, I was finishing Leah Libresco's "Building the Benedict Option..." Check. I also started reading Rosaria Butterfield's "The Gospel Comes With a House Key..." Check. Then, in fiction, I was reading "Amish Werewolves of Space..." well, at first I thought "Two out of three aren't bad" until I reread the cover and read the first chapter and realized it was three of three. (Kerry Nietz' Terror in Plain Space trilogy all have strong themes on community, on our responsibilities to community, and that our community might be bigger than we think. 

You know, maybe I ought to reread this one.
 

BOOK REVIEW - LETTER TO THE AMERICAN CHURCH BY ERIC METAXAS

 

 If we were in Germany in the early 1930's, would we have stood up to Hitler better than the churches of that time? Are we showing the same determination as men like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and William Wilberforce? Or are we focusing on parts of our Biblical call and having good excuses for ignoring the riskier parts?

Letter to the American Church is a call for pastors, churches, and Christians in the USA to stand up for truth and against evil. Most of the book looks back at the German Church and how they failed to stop Hitler's rise to power by either trying to appease the evil system or just keeping silent, as well as examining the American Church of today on how the same arguments for the German church's inaction against that evil are alive and well in dealing with the evils we face. 

Metaxas lists four ways our misunderstandings have put us in the present predicament:
1. A Misunderstanding on what faith is (leading to what Bonhoeffer calls "cheap grace."
2. What Metaxas refers to as the "idol of evangelism."
3. The "commandment" we're supposed to keep even though God and the Bible never gave it: "Be Ye Not Political".
4. Basing "being a good Christian" by the evils we personally avoid, not by the goods we could and should but often don't do. 

Being in a church where the pastor reminds us of the need to evangelize, the phrase "Idol of Evangelism" caught my interest. Reading it, I realize my church is not in that error. On one hand the "Idol of Evangelism" has us focusing so much on winning the lost that when they're won we don't get them where they can grow in Christ. But the greater danger is avoiding offending the sinner, so we don't call sin sin and allow those opposed to our faith changing definitions of words without challenging their deception. 

There are books that I'm so excited about, I'm encouraging everybody to read it. There are other books I want to get my friends to read so we can discuss it, noting the strong and not-so-strong arguments presented by the author, and evaluate how the book should impact our lives. Do you want to guess which one this book is? 

I glanced at some of the negative reviews. One is that we shouldn't be trying to force non-Christians to live like Christians. Maybe they missed the part in the book where Metaxas  mentions that some of this evil is opposed not just by Christians but other religions and sometimes even the non-religious. In addition, there is pressure from anti-religious activists for Christians to accept and even be celebrating of evil behavior. Plus, would these people want us Christians to be as silent on things like racism and human trafficking as they desire us to be on abortion and sexuality? 

The other negative comment is what makes the American Church so important? Good point. I think often the American Church makes an idol of patriotism and sees us (consciously or, more likely, unconsciously) as better than Christians in the rest of the world, who lack the resources we have (including literacy) and who are enduring persecution from religious and anti-religious governments/individuals. But whose responsibility is it to stand up for the truth in the USA, to preserve our freedoms that allow us to strengthen Christians not just here but overseas? How many think it's the American Church's job to be God's representatives in America? 

Yes, this book can stir up some controversy. Is that the reason I highly recommend this book? Or is it because it is a book that's trying to wake us up before it's too late? (Actually, if it is the latter, it will also be controversial.)

I would love to get a book club together, and read this, Rod Dreher's The Benedict Option, John MacArthur's Christ's Call To Reform the Church, and Anthony Forsythe's Caesar and the Church, and form a battle plan for Christians through that. Of course, my first choice is for it to be a local church book club as opposed to a Zoom meeting of friends all over the country/world. But the latter would be great as well.

I do find it interesting comparing this with Dreher's Live Not By Lies. Metaxas compares our current situation with the rise of Hitler, and Dreher likens it to the Communist takeover of various European countries. Either way, we're in trouble.

I really recommend this book, and I'd love to hear comments on this blog. Thanks.

One last comment. You notice that most non-fiction books have the title, a colon, and a subtitle? Did you notice there was no subtitle to this one?

 

DOES LOOKING BACK AT '22 AND FORWARD TO '23 CONVINCE US WE NEED A SACRED ASSEMBLY? (PART 6 OF 6)

Courtesy of Abolish Human Abortion, Ames, Iowa, 2016

"Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly." Joel 2:15

In 2018, I read The Benedict Option, where Rod Dreher was warning of a coming flood and that we needed to build our Christian community.

In 2021, I read Live Not By Lies, where Rod Dreher interviewed several Christians who survived the Soviet Regime, in which all said the current climate in the U.S. was identical to when the Communists took over.

Now, in late 2022, I'm in the middle of Letter to the American Church, where Eric Metaxas is saying that the American Church is at the same place the German Church was in the early 1930's when Hitler rose to power. He stated some, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, say the danger, while most did nothing.

A good friend of mine for 30 years unfriended me on Facebook in early 2021 because I committed the unpardonable sin: I voted for Trump in 2020. He considered Trump a threat to our democracy. He didn't want to hear that I was concerned by voting out Trump we could open the door for someone worse. And now, I'm pretty certain that we opened the door and that someone worse - or an ally of those worse than Trump in Congress - entered.

In other words, I do not trust our government. I do not trust our media to tell us the truth. And does it help my mood that I had recently finished another book pointing out that Christ is calling us to repent and to return to the five solas? That is, Scripture alone, Faith alone, Grace alone, Christ alone, to the glory of God alone?

Becky heard a pastor say that persecution of Christians can happen quickly, both in suddenness and in it being soon. Metaxas wrote that Hitler changed things in Germany quickly. I hope they're wrong, but I'm not expecting them to be.

What is the answer? Should Christians be developing strong communities/churches not unlike a monastic brotherhood? Should we be doing what we can to stop evil from rising to power? Should we be most concerned with turning from any idols in our heart or from complacency (which Zephaniah 1:12 describes as believing God will neither do evil or good) or from trusting in men and the word of men than in God and in the Word of God (the Bible)?

I am writing this on December 23rd, and setting it to be posted on December 31st at 6am EST (though the website might post it 3 hours earlier). Today at 12noon, Northside Baptist Church is praying in the New Year for two hours. I'm planning on being there.

No, not a cheerful blog to end 2022. But do we need to be encouraged 2023 will be better? Or do we need to be awakened that 2023 could be worse, and we either need to do something or be prepared for dark times? 

 

 

BOOK REVIEWS - FIXING THIS COUNTRY

 

Normally I would review a book or a series. This week, I'll be giving a batch of short reviews on books with a related subject: dealing with this mess. For the record, I would recommend reading the book unless I say otherwise.

1. Christian Theology of Public Policy: Highlighting the American Experience by John Cobin. This book considers four methods of looking at the government - the active and passive ways of seeing the Government as a God ordained institution (respectively Theonomy and Divine Right As Kings), and active and passive ways of seeing Government as a competing kingdom (Liberty of Conscience and Anabaptist). He then develops the Liberty of Conscience view.

 

2. The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation by Rod Dreher. If it sounds familiar, I've already reviewed and recommended it. Short summary - Dreher sees a slow drift away from God in the past seven centuries and calls the church to form communities to battle the coming storm.

 

3. Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb by Keith Giles. This is one book I don't recommend as much. Like Dreher above, Giles believes we need to take a step back from politics. But he traces the problem to Constantine and the church uniting at all with the state. This book reflects an anabaptist view, with the church completely separate from state.

4.  Turn Neither to the Right nor to the Left: A Thinking Christian's Guide to Politics and Public Policy by D. Eric Schansberg. Out of all these books, this one and The Benedict Option would be towards the top of the list. This volume encourages us not to legislate morality and to legislate justice. Very useful material, and he does an excellent job with abortion.

 

5. Blinded by Might: Can the Religious Right Save America? by Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson. This volume is right behind the other two, making us wonder again about how Christians should handle politics. Thomas also interviews ten individuals from Jerry Falwell to Norman Lear to John Ashcroft to George McGovern.  

6. The Divided States of America? by Richard Land. It's been a while since I've read it, but it is a good call not to let politics divide the church.

 

7. The American President (PBS boxed set). I looked for the book rendition, but only found the video which came out in 2000. It's natural to look at the role of the President, and while this doesn't identify a problem, it took an interesting track of putting our first 41 Presidents in groups of ten. For example, Washington is compared to other generals like William Harrison, Grant, and Eisenhower. True, many Presidents could fit into one of the categories (for example, Andrew Jackson was a general, but he was placed in another category. 

8. Where They Stand: The American Presidents in the Eyes of Voters and Historians by Robert W. Merry. This author ranks the president in several categories and compares the rankings of the scholars with the reaction of the voters - did the President get re-elected? If he didn't run for re-election, was a member of his party elected? 

9. Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty by Ivan Eland. Here, we see a different system
of selecting the order of presidents based on peace, prosperity and liberty, placing them as great (4), good (6), fair (4), poor (10), and bad (17). As a result, you see John Tyler and Grover Cleveland topping the list, while Washington is in the good category, and the Roosevelts were in the bad division. The second edition includes President Obama.

10. 9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America: and Four Who Tried To Save Her by Brion McClanahan. This is similar to the above one, only concentrating on those considered the best and worst. The nine were Jackson, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Wilson, FDR, Truman, LBJ, Nixon, and Obama, though he made it clear that both Bushes and Clintons were worthy of being included. The four good ones were Jefferson (1st term only), Tyler, Cleveland, and Coolidge. Unlike the other books, though, this one starts giving ideas of changing our constitution to improve things. His thoughts include giving the President a single six year term without re-election.

11. Two Presidents Are Better Than One: the Case for a Bi-Partisan Executive Branch by David Orentlicher. In other words, let's have Trump and Biden serve as our nation's two presidents. The suggestion is to elect the two highest vote-getters as co-presidents. While I doubt it works, the author has some interesting points. 

12. Running Alone: Presidential Leadership from JFK to Bush II by. Another idea - in this case, the problem is that the President is too independent of his party in Congress. There needs to be more team work. He also suggests changes to the lengths of elected officials - he thinks the President and both houses of Congress should all have concurrent four year terms, and that when you vote for a Presidential candidate, your automatically voting for that party's Senators and Representatives (like the VP currently is). I think the book is interesting, but I disagree with his solution.

13. The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters by Karl Rove. If you're a liberal, don't be put off by the author. Primarily, this is more of a biography, with the focus being on the 1896 Presidential election between Kennedy and William Jennings Bryan. But the best part is the end, where he gives eight lessons from McKinley. One of the best is to realize a political enemy is not a personal enemy. 

Any other books on the subject you find interesting?

 

BOOK REVIEW: THE BENEDICT OPTION BY ROD DREHER

 

I first read this book the better part of two years ago. Immediately I re-read it so I could write a review on it. Why? because I thought this was a book that needed to be read. And I've just read it a third time.

This is one of the rare books that I want to recommend others to read so I can sit down and discuss it with them. I don't agree with everything author Rod Dreher proposes. But this is an important book that I want to learn how to work it into my life. Some who disagreed with this book point out it's more Orthodox/Catholic than Evangelical, but I don't consider that a problem. Rather, it is a call to stand against the real and common enemy. 

Dreher sees five historic events from the past seven centuries as being not causes but influences to the current time, culminating with the sexual revolution. He sees the solution as one more influenced by Benedict's monasticism than the typical political activism we see today. It is not that Dreher recommends withdrawing from society, but it is more on Christians unifying into strong communities in a society that marginalizes us. He deals with important issues like politics - he feels the emphasis should be local, but the major national emphasis should be on religious liberty - education, church life, community, sexuality, and not being dependent on technology.

I showed this book and another with a similar theme to one of my best friends. That friend said by looking at the back cover he could tell the other author was mad at the church and that he didn't need to read that. Not true about this one - my friend said that he thought it was worthy of reading.  

Allow me to look at this book from an apologetics persepective. I believe this strongly recommends defending the faith through orthopraxy. You are probably more familiar with the word "orthodoxy" which means "right thinking;" "orthopraxy" refers to "right living." A lot of times our priorities and worldview as Christians is too much like the world. Dreher's approach is encouraging the church to be the church, to be the alternative to society's mess.