Emma Green's review piece on The Benedict Option is up today at The Atlantic site. Here's a link to it. She didn't really like the book. That disappoints me, because she's one of the best religion reporters out there, and I admire her work. But she seems to understand that the book isn't really for readers like her. Anyway, I appreciate the attention she gave to my book. I do want to respond to some of her points, though.
We talked for over an hour a few weeks back. I enjoyed the interview, but I told my wife afterward that I was struck by how much time Emma spent asking me about LGBT issues and the Ben Op, as if that were the main part of the book and the project. I got the impression that the main question she has about the Benedict Option project is whether or not it's good for the gays. This didn't surprise me too much, given that she writes for The Atlantic, which has a particular affinity for writing favorably about LGBT culture (e.g., “Meet the Latino Drag Queens Defying North Carolina's Anti-LGBT Law”). Still, it struck me as off-kilter — in fact, as an example of progressives and journalists deciding that social and religious conservatives are obsessed with homosexuality, when in fact it is they who are preoccupied with it, and focus disproportionately on it when they see churches not on board with full LGBT acceptance.
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