Some people take Rod Dreher’s Benedict Option to mean a wholesale retreat from the public square. That’s not the way of faithfulness. We must continue to make the case for Christian convictions and continue to be involved in politics, in higher education, in the media, and wherever else we can be a “faithful presence.” But retreat is not really the point of the Benedict Option. Dreher’s point has always been that we must recommit ourselves to strengthening alternative institutions, investing in counter-cultural church communities, and catechizing our own children.

It’s been a year of bad news, and for conservative Christians the Supreme Court brought more bad news on Monday. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled the legal definition of “sex” includes “sexual orientation and gender identity.” While it is still possible for religious liberty exemptions to be carved out by Congress, the ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County will have far-reaching consequences, including, Princeton’s Robert George says, “the eventual destruction of all-women’s sports.” Without explicit legal protections, religious institutions with traditional (read: what has been believed for most of Western history) convictions around homosexuality and transgenderism will likely face a torrent of litigation in the years ahead.

To add insult to injury for many conservatives, the majority opinion was written by Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s celebrated SCOTUS appointee (and note: many Republican Senators are backing the surprise ruling as well). The prospect of a Gorsuch-type justice was the reason many Christians voted for Trump. Many of those voters went to bed on Monday feeling disappointed and disillusioned. I am not making an argument whether it was right or wrong for Christians to vote for Trump in 2016 or whether they should or shouldn’t vote for him in 2020. My point is simply to remind evangelicals that politics and politicians will almost always disappoint. It’s always been a mistake to think we are one president or one Supreme Court justice away from a resounding victory in the culture war. Maybe there are more important ways to promote Christian virtue and preserve Christian orthodoxy in our world.

Some people take Rod Dreher’s Benedict Option to mean a wholesale retreat from the public square. That’s not the way of faithfulness. We must continue to make the case for Christian convictions and continue to be involved in politics, in higher education, in the media, and wherever else we can be a “faithful presence.” But retreat is not really the point of the Benedict Option. Dreher’s point has always been that we must recommit ourselves to strengthening alternative institutions, investing in counter-cultural church communities, and catechizing our own children.

Let me underscore the last item.

I am grateful for serious Christians involved in the political arena. What happens in D.C. matters. Elections have consequences. But families have more. To marshal our energies as if political victories were more important than strengthening the family is a decidedly un-conservative position. I’m not calling for abandoning politics, but I am asking the question, “What does it profit a man if he gets textualists on the Supreme Court but loses his own children?”

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