The Benedict Option As a young man, St. Benedict (born 480 AD) went to Rome to study and found its culture so hostile to the gospel that he left and became a hermit for fear of losing his soul. After a few years, others became attracted to his way of life and joined him in monastic communities which began to spread throughout Europe. As civilization in Europe collapsed during the coming decades and centuries, these communities who lived according to the Rule of Benedict provided stability, security, and a Christian way of life for all around them. In doing so, they preserved civilization and created a Christian culture that passed on the gospel to future generations. In this way, St. Benedict’s decision to withdraw and regroup ultimately succeeding overcoming a powerful culture that was at odds with the gospel. In 2017, a book came out called The Benedict Option. The message of the book is this: That we Christians are currently in the situation that St. Benedict found himself in as a young man in Rome. We have already lost the culture wars and are now living in a culture hostile to Christianity. Because of this, we need a change in strategy of way we engage in culture. If we want the generations that follow us to keep the faith, there are ways in which we must withdraw and regroup. By and large, I think this thesis is right. Our culture is no longer friendly towards Christians living out the faith taught by the bible and the Catholic Church. And yet, we are still so comfortable living in that culture – often so much so that an outsider wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between someone who claims to be a Christian and anyone else. Therefore, I do think withdrawing and regrouping is the better strategy for our time. Why should we think our culture is at odds with the gospel? Consider this. On September 9th, Netflix released a film called Cuties about a group of eleven-year-old girl dancers growing up. While Netflix defends this film as “a social commentary against the sexualization of young children”, there can be no doubt that it does the very thing it purports to criticize – it sexualizes young children. The movie includes multiple scenes of these young girls dancing suggestively in revealing outfits that las minutes-long. Even worse, it repeatedly utilizes suggestive camera angles of these eleven-year-olds such as “zooming in” in inappropriate ways. (Information about the content of this movie can be found on imdb.com’s parent’s guide.) A petition circulated the internet with hundreds of thousands of signatures calling on Netflix to cancel the release. The pushback succeeded in getting Netflix to apologize for the provocative movie poster they used to promote the film, but it did not succeed in prevent them from releasing it. Unfortunately, this is just one of many examples of large media corporations working to push an agenda meant to erode Christian understanding of sexuality. But while this may be the case, how many of us Christians will continue “feeding the beast” by giving them our money? There comes a point when engaging with the world is no longer possible without becoming swept away in it. Imagine a public school, for example, which has gone down the path of indoctrinating young children with ideologies incompatible with Christianity (this is happening in some parts of the country). A parent in a situation like this might be obliged to withdraw from the school and another option for their kids. (This is why voting for leaders who support “school choice” is so important right now.) Though it would be foolish to withdraw from the culture completely, it is necessary to withdraw in some ways - perhaps cancelling your Netflix subscription is one such example. May we learn to be in the world, without being of the world.