The Morning Brew Book Review: THE BENEDICT OPTION by Rod Dreher

This recommended faith-based reading is not a pleasant perusal to go to bed by, but it amounts to a necessary wake-up call.

The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher (published by Penguin Random House LLC, 2017) is not relaxing and certainly not escapism; in fact, I found it to be downright disturbing.  

But, that's the point.  

By reading this book, you will learn about how cultural fates have come full circle and the perfect social-political-corporational storm has amassed to bring America to the brink of what the author calls "the Post-Christian Era".  Page after page, Dreher builds his case to prove that the diminishing Christian presence and practice here in the West is gasping from its greatest existential threat--one that even surpasses the Dark Ages.  

When I read this book last year, it was the first time I had seen such a harsh description of the state of Christianity in America today.  But instead of losing heart and abandoning the book, I found it all very relatable--not only now the dwindling of church attendance, but also the headlines of the growing legal and corporate threats to anyone trying to live by biblical standards in our schools and at the workplace.  And for what I hadn't understood before, the alliance of the social-political-corporational forces at work against Christianity, the author provided useful analysis and context.  

Dreher describes this Christian crisis in time and what it means for those of us who care.  His candor is refreshing and even relieving.  He further dives into how we blindly arrived at this point, causes that even predate America's existence as a nation.  Dreher identifies and expounds upon the following turning points:

* The 14th century's loss of belief in the integral connection between God & creation
* The 16th century's collapse of religious unity/authority in the Protestant Reformation
* The 18th century's Enlightenment, displacing the Christian religion with the cult of Reason
* The 18th-20th century's Industrial Revolution 
* The 20th century to present's Sexual Revolution

Dreher's historic research is impressive and vast.  All of it leads to the climatic question: Where do we go from here?

Dreher then lays out his book's namesake strategy for rebounding (or shall we say, reinventing) our position in society for the sake of the survival of practicing our beliefs.  Not surprisingly, it calls for the formation of isolated societies which instantly brought to my mind how the Amish have endured for so long.

It is that strategy, one that the author calls the Benedict Option, for which the book is titled and that is named for St. Benedict who during the Dark Ages incorporated this same idea for the survival of Christianity during that period.  In fact, Dreher reports on his visits to the monastery of St. Benedict in Norcia and interviewing the monks there to add to this blueprint.

As the reader starts to mull over this new yet ancient theory on using counter-culture and what form it would even take in present day America, Dreher offers up certain examples of efforts already underway in this country but which are on a much smaller scale; scattered seeds bearing some blossoms as proof of the ideology's possibility and viability.

But can such seeds be enough to eventually take root to grow into the force needed to save Christianity in America?  

Either the last chapter has yet to be written to confirm its call for action, or there is an entire sequel waiting to unfold in response.  In either case, The Benedict Option is a must-read to explore how course-changing historical events have pooled together to produce waves that threaten to reach beyond us and well into the future to completely drown out Christianity.  This book is the tsunami warning.  The take-away for each reader is to decide which option represents the highest and firmest ground to grab onto.   

The Morning Brew Book Review: BLOOD BROTHERS By Elias Chacour

Imagine you're a Christian child and a native of the Holy Land, living there as you and your family practice your faith in the very setting of Jesus' earthly life.  In the company of all your close as well as extended relatives, your home's setting is surrounded by where Jesus was born and raised, where He ministered, performed miracles, died and was resurrected.  But then, suddenly and without warning, you find yourself swept up in the raging violence and terror that begins the Israeli-Palestinian conflict…

My recommended faith-based reading for this week, Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour, is one of my all-time faith favorites as a story that has withstood the test of time for many reasons both earthly and spiritual.  One obvious--and unfortunate--explanation for its endurance is this book's earthly subject remaining so relevant.  Just last month, we saw President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.  And then last week, we saw Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas’s response of declaring the Oslo Accords (Israeli-Palestinian peace talks) now dead.

But the book's true gem of stamina is its special spiritual focus on reflecting the light of Christ in a dark place, and it is this quality that ensures its being a timeless treasure for believers no matter the headlines.

Blood Brothers was first published by Chosen Books, a Division of Baker Book House Company, back in 1984 with several reprintings that followed including my own expanded edition.  Despite its publication date,  this book remains the crucial backstory of the current headlines.  Preserved in print, its reverberating theme now climaxes as a call for a peaceful resolution before the coffin permanently closes on the two-state solution.

I was introduced to this book several years ago, when my children were still small and I wanted to find a way to introduce them to this matter but felt that the books I had read on it were too grim to share.  So I asked an organization that I belonged to, the United Methodist Church’s Task Force on Peace with Justice for Israel/Palestine, if they knew of a book that could explain the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without the end result creating the negative feelings of Anti-Semitism, Anti-Palestinian, or Islamophobia.  Being that we are an Orthodox Christian family, I also had some concerns about how the overall Christian connection would be framed.

The resounding recommendation I received from the UMC organization was Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour with David Hazard.  I went on to purchase this book for my son, but of course I also read it.   With all my previous readings, interviews, and attending lectures on this conflict, I had became rather well-versed about the many complexities of it which included the “Nakba”.  This is the Palestinian word for the catastrophy (their description for when Zionists arrived in Palestine and forcefully took the land in the Zionist quest to reclaim biblical Israel).  But what made this book of a Palestinian prospective different for me was that this story was told through the first-hand eyewitness account of a native devout Christian, Elias Chacour, who possessed the impressive pedigree of belonging to a family that could trace their lineage, along with the roots of their Melkite community in Galilee, all the way back to the very time when Christianity was born!  

Blood Brothers is Elias Chacour's own personal story, throughout which he bears his soul chapter by chapter in reflecting on what it was like to be a young boy caught up in the war of 1948, with the aftermath of dispossession and persecution.  While a reader with some knowledge on both sides of this issue might simply assume that since this story is about what a Palestinian experienced from 1947 on, then it must be all about devastation and loss.  But what such a reader is unprepared for is how Chacour's story surprisingly uplifts as he shares how his family struggles to survive in ways that were in lockstep with gospel teachings.  "Blessed are the peacemakers" became more than a directive; it justified their refusal to take up arms in their own defense.  

Chacour grows from being a child during the Nakba to a coming of age during the settler colonialism period that followed.  It was during this latter phase, as many fellow Christians were struggling to hold onto their faith, that our main character began to realize he was being called to serve the church.  Chacour provides his scattering flock with comfort, inspiration and enduring strength.  Though challenged, he balances retaining his truthful witness of the injustices all around him while reaching out to "love thy enemy".  Page by page, the reader experiences Chacour growing in his faith and humanity, his effectiveness leading to his climb in the ranks of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, earning credentials and credibility along the way as he evolves from survivor-turned priest-turned bishop-turned peace activist.  He even goes on to become an award-winning humanitarian.  All of these accomplishments lead to him to gain the admiration of his people, and eventually even the respect of Israeli officials and world leaders.

This book is further enhanced by its endorsing foreword by former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker III (who held that position during 1989-92).  Reading this message from someone in such high standing gives authenticity to the value of the book from an official American prospective.  It was the dedicated work of Sec. Baker that paved the way to the Madrid Conference in 1991, an endeavor which was the forerunner to open the door to the Oslo Accords a couple of years later.  And it was Oslo that has been the blueprint for the  peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians which had existed (at least on paper) right up to our present year. Sec. Baker's own efforts toward Holy Land peace makes his foreword all the more influential as well as informative for the reader.  

While you can be sure that you will gain a fuller knowledge and understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by reading Blood Brothers, know that you will also be treated to the story's testimony of how the depth of faith not only can succeed to sustain oneself, moreover it can inspire to educate and edifiy the faith in others who also face crisis. 

If you consider the Holy Land special and if you favor a peaceful solution to this region's sufferings, then you will prize Blood Brothers as much as I do.  Elias Chacour's classic proves that while following the Christian path is not always one that can avoid the dark division of politics and differing religions, Christians can nonetheless discover a way to avoid the demonization of others and truly "love thy enemy" even under the most dire of circumstances—and that is the treasured message mirroring this teaching of Jesus that makes Elias Chacour’s book one of the best faith-based books you will ever read!