Benedict Option vs. Boniface Option Revisited

How about both?

Lately I’ve been thinking about how Andrew Isker and his Boniface Option is being proven mostly right. Aggressive opposition to “trashworld” was the right strategy in church, culture and politics in 2024, and it’s the right strategy now.

Young men across ethnic lines especially are being won over by this strategy. Fed up with being put down and marginalized by “diverse” DEI, which might as well be DIE to many men, and told to be nice and “safe”, they love Trump and are gravitating to churches that are masculine and “based” and have the gumption to oppose wokeness and all its manifold toxicities. Those toxicities — DEI, free speech suppression, child mutilation, the Invasion etc. — have so provoked many that they love fighters like Trump and manly Christian leaders who put wokeness in the trash bin where it belongs.

Now I remain skeptical that America can be turned back into a Christian country. But I am glad to see we are in a traditional Christian moment when Gen Z particularly are flocking to trad churches and church groups. I’m seeing this and praying and assisting. Who knows how far God may take this.

And I think it still time for aggressive pursuit and trampling of the Globalists and the woke. When you have the enemy on the run is not the time to play nice. See any number of Old Testament battles. And the anger over what has been done to this country since the election of Obama in 2008, really since the election of W in 2000, has created a great well of support for defrenestrating our enemies within America and within the organized church.

Yes, that may seem harsh, and that support won’t be perpetual. But, to give one example, actual Christians and allies are glad to see faux Christian NGOs that assisted the Invasion, such as World Relief and Catholic Charities, lose most of their fed funding. (But if you do think me too harsh, hold on. I will balance this out somewhat.)

In government, people are glad to see Trump hit the ground running. They are loving all this winning against the woke, the groomers, the speech squelchers, the human traffickers and more. So both in politics and in the church, I think this is prime time to keep pursuing our enemies; it is prime time for the Boniface Option.

At the same time, we should fight fair. That our Globalist enemies may be evil — and they mostly are — does not justify evil on our part. We are still to avoid even the appearance of evil as much as we can. (1 Thess. 5:22) One quick application of that: although trolling those who put the worst possible (really impossible) interpretation on Elon Musk’s awkward “my heart goes out to you” on Inauguration Day might have been appropriate for a brief time (and I stand with Fr. Calvin Robinson), let’s now stop with the Roman salutes. Please.

Another caveat. I love DOGE. Heck I’ve even been looking for a good DOGE cap to wear proudly. But Trump and Musk need to take care to avoid cutting things that average reasonable people want to keep as Sasha Stone has gently warned.

How Far is Too Far for DOGE?

But is it time for Trump or for zealous Christians to let up in pursuing the enemy within the government and within the church? Heck, no! Not yet. May the Boniface Option continue!

By now I may be puzzling readers. Aren’t I a fan of

Rod Dreher

and his Benedict Option? Yes, I am. And wasn’t there a brief feud between Isker, his mentor Doug Wilson, and Dreher? Yes, there was. I addressed that feud in a podcast and in a post I wrote a year ago. That post has aged very well if I may say so, and I do.

2024 indeed turned out to be a time to “fight, fight, fight” and 2025 still is. Yet this is still very much a time for the Benedict Option also. And remember Dreher has never advocated that Christians withdraw from the culture or politics. He himself has done his part as a “culture warrior.” He now even likes most of what Trump is doing although he has long been a Trump critic. He is especially thankful for the role his friend J. D. Vance is playing.

But Dreher rightly knows the limits of activism and politics both in a country and in the church. He echoes Victor Orban in saying politics is necessary but is not sufficient in preserving a culture. The need remains for traditional Christians to build their own institutions, both public and private, to further the Faith and its practice, and to preserve and pass on culture and learning.

And now is great time to work on that. Love or hate Trump, he is on the side of those trying to revive and preserve Christian Western culture whereas the Biden Regime was on the side of those trying to tear it down and to silence us. And now there is a revival of freedom of speech and of religion. Perhaps most importantly, after long years of “trashworld” (more of which just got revealed at the NSA, yikes!) people are receptive to the reassertion of Western culture and of the Faith. It is therefore every bit as much a time to build as it is to fight.

So my advice to both the Benedict Option people and to the Boniface Option people is to respect each other even if you can’t work all that well together. Both Options are doing good and needed and timely work. So, while holding accountable when needed, don’t undermine each other. Does Trump and the Reformed theobros get under your skin? Then work on building up your work for faith and culture instead of undermining those who are fighting for your right to work for faith and culture. Likewise for you more hot blooded for the fight. We need those — you need those — who quietly work to revive faith and culture. Remember St. Paul’s teaching that we have different roles to play and are not to look down on each other because of that.

So I repeat what I wrote a year ago. It is a time to fight. But it’s also a time to preserve and build. We need people to practice both the Benedict and the Boniface Options. And it would be best if we treat each other as allies and co-workers, not adversaries.

So let’s keep fighting, and let’s keep building. There is work to do. And this is a very good time to do it.

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Lead photo: GROK’s idea of Ss. Benedict and Boniface having a chat.