The Benedict Option as described in the article was originally proposed in the writings of the Scottish philosopher Alasdair McIntyre who suggested in 1981 the need for civilization to create a space, a monastic like shelter from the storm of sex, violence, abuse, and unethical life. It would be a place where civility, intellectuality and the moral life could be sustained, and the values and doctrines held dearly could be lived out.
It is not an entirely new idea; history has seen multiple variants, for religious, philosophical, and political reasons, of people to cloister outside of the American mainstream. From the Shakers and Mennonites, to the Tribe of Twelve, and even the Moral Majority, various groups have chosen to step away from the status quo to preserve something they believe is unique to them. The results have run the spectrum from the quaintness of Amish life to the fringe of David Koresh. While diverse, they share in common an intellectual or physical separation from the centerline of contemporary American thought, often believing that their self-professed and unique notion of life is under assault or threat.
If someone wishes to exercise the Benedict Option for themselves, literally or figuratively standing apart from life, who am I to judge? Just as Sly and the Family Stone proclaimed in their 1968 hit “Everyday People,” I also say “different strokes for different folks.”
However, there are three cautionary caveats for the conservative or traditional separatist raised by Mathis. First, if you don’t like society now, you really aren’t going to like it when you leave; if you are not there to contradict the status quo, who will be the counterweight in society?
Second, be careful how repressed or persecuted you think you are, because there are places where good people are being killed for their beliefs. Your irritation or distaste at being challenged in your thinking might look like you took your ball and went home just because the other kids wouldn’t play by your rules. Third, a civic disagreement with your belief system, or a general societal shift away from your values, does not constitute your loss of religious freedom or religious liberty.
To this, especially for my Catholic brothers and sisters contemplating religious apartheid, I would add the fourth caveat of being aware of your intolerance. If you are enamored with the universality of a self-professed belief that God favors you for doing certain things like praying this way, dressing that way, thinking this way, and worshiping that way, then it would be easy for you to believe that He does not favor those who don’t. Who are you to judge?
The Gospel of Jesus calls us to live together, and while in our faith we recognize the value of religious life lived in cloister, we value the role for the rest of us in community - the whole community. The separation of self diminishes evangelization in the bigger picture of Catholic, diminishes the transformative grace of journeying with others, and diminishes our social role as the “wider we.” Being Catholic calls us to answer for more than inward looking personal belief, it calls us to the authentic universality of our faith in company with the world, a world in which we are all Sly Stone’s “Everyday People.”
“I am no better and neither are you, we are the same whatever we do ... different strokes for different folks.”
Ted Furlow is Director of Pastoral Planning in the Diocese of San Bernardino.