A few years ago, I started writing a novel that was loosely based on my recollections of having grown up in and out of a series of attempted religious communities. As I wrote, I collected material from others with similar experiences, and the anecdotes piled high. Eventually I realized that some of the stories were so over-the-top, mere realism would be insufficient to convey the bizarre intensity of life on the outside of the ordinary parameters of modern American experience, and a sort of magical realist/ gothic mashup would be better. Magical realism as a sub-genre has a special place in tale-telling of post-colonial or marginalized communities. And there is something post-colonial, something of the feel of the immigrant, when you come out of community life and dwell in the mainstream. As my collection of anecdotes piled high, I found myself thinking, repeatedly, damn, this is good. I HAVE to use this one. Of course, in the ethos of the storyteller, good usually means excruciatingly bad, painful, embarrassing, tragic.
So, yes, escapees from intentional community have stories to tell, and many are painful. My own experiences verge more on the grotesquely humorous, and some of my memories are happy ones, so even now, when the experiments are over, I still can understand why something like the Benedict Option would appeal to people. In a way, it is a beautiful dream.
Because, you see, the Benedict Option though not by that name was around for a good forty years before Dreher sat down to write. My father was one of several who came up with the idea. While running a raucous bar in Chapel Hill, NC, he was also reading Thomas Merton and Louis Bromfield and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and eventually came to the conclusion that the best bet for Christians in the modern world was to come out and be set apart. He even drew on his understanding of St. Benedicts communities, with a special stress on the notion of ora et labora.
Because my father opted actually to do the thing, instead of sitting in an office writing a book about it, you have never heard of him. Which means, I suppose, that his attempt was fairly successful. But these attempts are never all that successful.
My novel The Serpent Motif ended up being 180,00 words long, which means too long to interest agents for hard-copy publications, so Im trimming it down a bit while I work on another, shorter project. And from a theoretical standpoint I could also wax overly verbose, on the idea of intentional religious community, why it is attractive, and why it wont work. I have had first-hand experience of just how things can go wrong, and lots of second-hand stories about other ways they can go even more wrong.
And theres something touchingly tragic about it: because on a fundamental level, one can see the appeal of the idea, and many of those who attempted it did so with the noblest of intentions.
Sam Rochas recent review of The Benedict Option details some of the areas in which Drehers conceptualization fails. Rocha, like me, has first-hand experience of what an attempt at community feels like. Fr. Stephanos Pedrano, guest-writing for Steel Magnificat, details why the Option isnt especially Benedictine.
And there are other problems: when you try to come Out (or In?), whatever you feared in the World comes in with you, into your microcosm. Its ironic that my fathers first community was called New Eden. Into every Eden, a serpent will come. We tend to bring it in with us. Want to escape from overweening tyrannical power? Too bad, you probably brought it with you, and you will find the community dominated by whichever leader (usually male) has the loudest voice and the least empathy. Want to escape from sexual perversion? Ha. Have I got some stories! Its amazing just how perverse people can be, on the land, when no one is looking. Want to escape from a welfare system in which those who dont work wont eat? I can assure you, you will be shelling beans or building a cabin while nearby some hanger-on rambles on forever about how misunderstood he is. Tired of nitpicking bureaucracy? Your community will be filled with nitpickers, happy to call you out if your daughters skirts are too short, or if your sons have been listening to evil music like (gasp) Simon and Garfunkel.
Communities like this tend to attract those who are unable to get along in the ordinary world, and whatever it was that made them unable to get along, they will bring in with them.
But the main thing I want to touch on, here, is why the idea of radical separation into intentional community is delusional from the start. And that has to do with money.
Money creates systemic dependence. Thats why agrarianism is a needed component in any marginally successful effort. Independence from the System means creating an alternative inter-dependence on the land. Back in the early nineties, my family and others were involved in ongoing discussions about this, with others involved in Caelum et Terra, the brainchild of Daniel Nichols. Nichols, like my father, gets the hipster cred here: he came up with the Benedict Option before it was cool. Too bad they didnt patent it.
Now, today, David Russell Mosley writes about Michael Martins Sophia Option, as an alternative to Drehers approach. Martin is a biodynamic farmer (I have him to thank for my fine horseradish planting), and understands better than a journalist what is entailed in creating a network of interconnections that differ from those in the neo-liberal capitalist system. I would suggest that any attempt at intentional community that neglects agrarianism is already problematic, because it means that one remains absolutely dependent on money, and therefore on capitalism, and therefore on industry, and therefore on the whole global military industrial complex. Which means, if you think youre set apart, youre just fooling yourself. You are living immersed in structural evil, and limply virtue-signalling.
But even with agrarianism, its impossible to avoid money. We tried. We lived on someone elses land, so there were no taxes. My parents had no money-earning work outside the home, but we lived almost entirely on garden produce. We had electricity, but no running water, no telephone, certainly no television. We heated our home with a wood stove, and my father spent all day every day all winter just cutting wood, with a bowsaw and axe (no noisy chainsaws to disturb the tranquility of nature), in order to keep one room of the house livable.
But we still needed a little money, and relied heavily on donations from those who remained complicit in the system. Which means we were complicit in the system, even if we pretended not to be.
The Onion had a funny piece, recently, about how Noam Chomsky trying just to enjoy a normal day, but everything he sees reminds him of our dependence on neoliberal global imperialsm. I sympathize. I would like to create a culture in which I know that nothing I use is made by slave labor or via environmental despoilment. I would like to rely entirely on hand-tools that dont depend on fossil fuels, and derive my energy from renewable resources. Forget about the incredible challenges of going off-grid in our society. The challenge even buying work clothes that dont tie me in with slave labor is so great, I occasionally have what my husband jokingly refers to as Noam Chomsky moments.
Unless we run off into the wild and live by foraging, and clad ourselves in natural fibers, we are locked into the System.
And even if we were to do this, the System would go on.
Unless, of course, it collapses: this was what I was raised to believe would happen, and now I regard with amusement the feverish attempts of Preppers to prepare for it.
In the Prepper mind, once the System collapses, well all be living like survivalists, foraging and hunting, growing things from open-pollinated seed. But this is again sheer fantasy. We have so depleted our natural resources, the only way a nation of Preppers would survive off the land is if most of them were killed off in the apocalyptic event, first. As it stands, an America full of trigger-happy survivalists out there bagging game for their families will wipe out the deer population in no time at all. I suppose eventually the Preppers will get around to eating one another. Radial inter-dependence on community, indeed.
So what we have to admit is that no matter how diligently we attempt to distance ourselves from the System, we are still locked into it. Or else living on a mountain dressed in goat-hide, eating one another.
So as Christians who take a serious moral stance in relation to structural evil (though we may differ in our ideas of what structural evil is: what I fear is not at all the things Dreher fears) what do we do? There have to be a range of middle grounds between total acceptance of a system that generates destruction, and the sort of radical self-sufficiency that leads to degradation, failure of community, and ultimately cannibalism (metaphorical, if not literal). I hope that, at least, the publication of Drehers book will open up more space for these conversations. But in order to sort out what is and isnt possible, we need to start by being honest with ourselves about just how dependent we really are.
Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Millet_(II)_001.jpg (This painting of The Angelus by Millet was iconic in my upbringing, an image of the dream my father had of the life of work and prayer on the land)
Continue reading here:
my family did the benedict option before it was cool and here's why it doesn't work - Patheos (blog)
- Twin Oaks Intentional Community - Twin Oaks Intentional ... [Last Updated On: December 8th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 8th, 2016]
- The Camphill Assocation of North America Communities [Last Updated On: December 9th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 9th, 2016]
- Cohousing - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: December 11th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 11th, 2016]
- Communes: the pros & cons of intentional community ... [Last Updated On: December 21st, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 21st, 2016]
- Jewish Intentional Communities Conference - Hazon [Last Updated On: December 25th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 25th, 2016]
- Common Fire Beacon-Newburgh | Creating diverse ... [Last Updated On: January 2nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: January 2nd, 2017]
- Intentional Housing Communities | www.hampshire.edu [Last Updated On: February 5th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 5th, 2017]
- A First Gen Lawyer-Turned-Entrepreneur Pioneers New Standards for College Freshmen - Huffington Post [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Disparities in minority unemployment targeted by Iowa officials - DesMoinesRegister.com [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- ACE program benefits low-income communities - Observer Online [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Want a happy old age? Get your friends to be your neighbours - Independent Online [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Coalition Calls Itself The 'Eyes, Ears & Voice' Of Pittsburgh's Black Community - 90.5 WESA [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- 'A community remembers' coming to Hesston - Butler County Times Gazette [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Krista Tippett February 01, 2017 - America Magazine [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Serving the most diverse urban area on the planet - New York Nonprofit Media [Last Updated On: February 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 8th, 2017]
- To truly serve the public, community stations must apply standards for what's said on-air - Current [Last Updated On: February 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 8th, 2017]
- Here's what went down at the NYC launch of Ashley Biden's charitable clothing line - Technical.ly [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Appalachian's Alternative Service Experience among nation's top 10 higher education institutions for number of programs - Appalachian State University [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Pastor: We must build bridges between police and local black communities - Fort Worth Star Telegram (blog) [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Chris Wood: Now more than ever localize! - vtdigger.org [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2017]
- A Business Plan for Healthy Communities - Hospitals & Health Networks [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2017]
- The Death of the Ski Bum and Intentional Tourism - The Catalyst [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2017]
- Heroin hits home: Highways provide "easy access" for drug trafficking in Franklin County - Herald-Mail Media [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2017]
- How Anarchists and Intentional Communities Are Reacting to ... [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2017]
- Ohio Continues with Next Phase of InsideOut Initiative to Combat Win-at-All Costs Sports Mentality - Norwalk Reflector [Last Updated On: February 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2017]
- Microsoft Executives to Keynote Summit EMEA 2017 Conference - Yahoo Finance [Last Updated On: February 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2017]
- Marnita's Table set for Wednesday - Daily Globe [Last Updated On: February 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 14th, 2017]
- David Littlewood, guest columnist: Time to repeal Dodd-Frank Act and free up our community banks - Waco Tribune-Herald [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Ithaca organization encourages people to participate in National Random Acts of Kindness Week - The Ithaca Voice [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Portland groups form coalition to eradicate hate - KOIN.com [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Nash says 'there's more to do' on diversity at State of the County address - Gwinnettdailypost.com [Last Updated On: February 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 16th, 2017]
- Anson County community meeting to fight poverty planned for Feb. 18 - Ansonrecord [Last Updated On: February 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 16th, 2017]
- Spreading the Faith: Moving Coins and Moving Communities - Patheos (blog) [Last Updated On: February 17th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 17th, 2017]
- If It Walks Like a Duck - ChicagoNow (blog) [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
- Immigrant Round-ups Stir Fears - Consortium News [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
- Pace: What Should I Give Up This Year? - Covington News [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
- J Mase III of #BlackTransMagick seeks to redistribute resources - Daily Illini [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
- South Side getting trauma center, but it'll be far more than just an emergency room - Fox 32 Chicago [Last Updated On: February 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 21st, 2017]
- St. Louis Park cohousing community welcomes home all ages - Minneapolis Star Tribune [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2017]
- The Benedict Option and Rod Dreher's LGBT Challenge - The Atlantic - The Atlantic [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- Mark Sundeen looks for a better way to live - Missoula Independent [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- Cohousing communities gain popularity, including here in Nashville - WKRN.com [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- The Christian Retreat From Public Life - The Atlantic [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- New senior living community eyeing Waxahachie - Waxahachie Daily Light [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- Better health needs a diverse workforce - Greenville Daily Reflector [Last Updated On: February 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 25th, 2017]
- Businesses: State needs more immigrants - Mankato Free Press [Last Updated On: February 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 25th, 2017]
- Cohousing communities gain popularity - WDTN [Last Updated On: February 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 25th, 2017]
- Letters: Dismiss Schimel, others for maps - The Sheboygan Press [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Drums, Voices, and Circles - Memphis Democrat [Last Updated On: March 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 1st, 2017]
- Food: Four Short Talks brings community to the table - Dailyuw [Last Updated On: March 2nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 2nd, 2017]
- Family School rebuts report on lack of diversity - Coastal View News [Last Updated On: March 2nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 2nd, 2017]
- The Wall Street Journal explores trends in Christian community life sort of - GetReligion (blog) [Last Updated On: March 2nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 2nd, 2017]
- Renting land to highest bidder stumbling block for young people looking to start in agriculture - INFORUM [Last Updated On: March 3rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 3rd, 2017]
- Transportation/Traveling While Living Off Grid - Mother Earth News [Last Updated On: March 4th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 4th, 2017]
- New School Board President Believes Schools Belong to Communities - The Exponent Telegram (press release) (registration) [Last Updated On: March 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 6th, 2017]
- Worcester's retiree health costs 'unsustainable' - telegram.com - Worcester Telegram [Last Updated On: March 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 7th, 2017]
- 12 on Tuesday: Leslie Orrantia - WISC - Channel 3000 - Channel3000.com - WISC-TV3 [Last Updated On: March 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 8th, 2017]
- By walking the beat, Kalamazoo officers nurture genuine ... - Michigan Radio [Last Updated On: March 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 8th, 2017]
- Sometimes the Grass Really is Greener - Memphis Democrat [Last Updated On: March 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 8th, 2017]
- Is Clallam opening the door to tiny houses? | Sequim Gazette - Sequim Gazette [Last Updated On: March 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 8th, 2017]
- New St. Paul police program aims to mentor recruits - Minneapolis Star Tribune [Last Updated On: March 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 9th, 2017]
- A New Kind of Homeless Village is Coming to Kenton. It's a Big Deal. - The Portland Mercury (blog) [Last Updated On: March 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 10th, 2017]
- Why We Need the Benedict Option and How It Doesn't Have to ... - Patheos (blog) [Last Updated On: March 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 10th, 2017]
- National Expert Shares Thoughts on Environmental Justice - WUWM [Last Updated On: March 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 11th, 2017]
- The Promise of Paradise features area - 100 Mile House Free Press [Last Updated On: March 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 12th, 2017]
- Speak out about your experiences - Hibbing Daily Tribune [Last Updated On: March 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 12th, 2017]
- Trust comes in several varieties - Muncie Star Press [Last Updated On: April 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: April 8th, 2017]
- Intentional neighborhoods take root across country - LancasterOnline [Last Updated On: April 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: April 8th, 2017]
- Saint Benedict's Mandate - Patheos (blog) [Last Updated On: April 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: April 8th, 2017]
- Cohousing Part I: Creating community and reducing social isolation - Michigan State University Extension [Last Updated On: April 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: April 8th, 2017]
- Searching for a greater interfaith understanding - Seattle Globalist [Last Updated On: June 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 6th, 2017]
- The fight for affordable housing in Jefferson Park continues - Chicago Tribune [Last Updated On: June 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 6th, 2017]
- A 'Justin Option'? Justin Martyr and the Ben-Op - National Catholic Register (blog) [Last Updated On: June 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 6th, 2017]
- The Groves of Academe: On Keep the Damned Women Out - lareviewofbooks [Last Updated On: June 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 6th, 2017]
- Curating Community through Intentional Placemaking - Urban Land [Last Updated On: June 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 6th, 2017]
- Local ties: New tailgate market locations highlight business and community connections - Mountain Xpress [Last Updated On: June 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 7th, 2017]
- How Power Street Theatre Company is taking on representation in the arts - Generocity [Last Updated On: June 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 7th, 2017]
- Open house will celebrate Folk Art Guild's 50 years - News - The ... - Penn Yan Chronicle-Express (blog) [Last Updated On: June 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 7th, 2017]
- Archbishop: In 'post-Christian world' fidelity, charity, truth stand out - CatholicPhilly.com [Last Updated On: June 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 7th, 2017]
- How Are New Ecclesial Movements Changing the Church? - Commonweal [Last Updated On: June 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 8th, 2017]