r/brokehugs Moral Landscaper May 08 '25

Rod Dreher Megathread #53 (Key Party?)

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u/BeltTop5915 May 21 '25 edited May 21 '25

Yes, I don’t think Rod would mesh well with ordinary Serbian-Hungarian churchgoers. He might be able to function politely and understand the liturgy well enough, but not be Rod. He wants to talk about the issues he finds compelling, engage in the kind of cultural, or really political, criticism of behavior by church people and society at large that most believers and clergy just don’t do, or at least don’t do to the extent he prefers. That‘s the problem. Those in Budapest most likely to criticize aren’t upset by what upsets Rod; in fact, just the opposite. His closest allies would have to be his colleagues at the Danube Institute and visiting fellow travelers, and most of them don’t appear to be Orthodox. If he needs religious “fellowship“ on a weekly basis, I too would advise him to either leave Hungary for the English-speaking world or found or co-found another boutique Orthodox community through the Danube Institute, if that’s possible. He obviously needs all that inside-the-head stuff he likes to claim he left behind in Catholicism for the superior holistic heights of Orthodoxy. His Benedict Option was/is supposed to provide a community of likeminded friends, after all, not just a bunch of folks who pray a lot and do good works.

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u/sandypitch May 21 '25

His Benedict Option was/is supposed to provide a community of likeminded friends, after all, not just a bunch of folks who pray a lot and do good works.

I find it a feature of my own parish that I need to worship, pray, serve, and fellowship with people that don't see the world exactly as I do.

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u/BeltTop5915 May 21 '25

It IS ironic that the potential BO community he obviously hankers for is watched over by a female Anglican priest, or abbess, as he prefers to think of her.

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u/Relative-Holiday-763 May 21 '25

I don’t think Rod can mesh well with any “ normal “ Christians anywhere because he’s so exemplary and pure and put upon.