Popular Eastern Orthodox Author Rod Dreher Talks about The Faith, His Own Journey, Culture Wars and Politics

VOL: Your call in the Benedict Option for a tactical retreat to resist secularism may be a viable corrective for Christian faith traditions with a well-established understanding of corporate faith and the role Christianity plays in the common good. But for evangelicals, whose theology emphasizes the individual’s relationship with God, retreat could actually exacerbate our individualism by disabling a key piece of our theology – the call to actively and intentionally work for the good of our neighbor’s soul. The Great Commission still stands. What is your response to that?

DREHER: All Christians have a duty to evangelize. My concern is that we have completely neglected discipleship — and without effective discipleship, evangelism is weak. What do people think they are evangelizing others to? I was once challenged by a Catholic critic of the Benedict Option, who said that my work runs contrary to Pope Francis’s call for Catholics to “go to the margins,” or whatever the buzz phrase is. I responded that if we don’t know and practice our faith, then we have nothing to take to those on the margins. I know almost nothing about the Evangelical world, but I know a lot about the Catholic world, which I used to be a part of, and I can tell you that for the most part, catechesis and discipleship is weak to non-existent. I have been told by Evangelical friends that most young Evangelicals are the products of youth group culture, in which Jesus is presented as one’s Best Friend. This emotivist approach to the faith is useless at best. It’s like selling someone a car without teaching them how to drive it.