Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84Plough Quarterly • Winter 2017 15 said, “We’re not fettered by any obligation to the past. We’re going to be the authors of our own future.” We don’t like to acknowledge that the past has claims on us because that would inhibit our individual freedom. This is crazy! When you start reading about the history of the church and what our brothers and sisters in the faith went through to hold on to the gospel, it is appalling that we just turn our backs on our patrimony like that. That’s not to say that people in the past necessarily knew better than we do about all things; they didn’t. There was never a golden age. But for heaven’s sake, if we separate ourselves from our roots so thoroughly, we’ll be carried off down the stream. We won’t even know what it means to be a Christian anymore. That’s what we’re in danger of losing, the memory of what it has meant in the past to be a Christian. We need to hold on to that and steward it for our children and our children’s children. If we don’t have that sense, we’re going to be completely assimilated by moder- nity. That’s what’s happening right now to too many Christians. You wrote recently: “Our first loyalty is to the church, not to American empire. I want to encourage and cultivate faithful Christian resis- tance.” That language is reminiscent of left-wing radicals such as Daniel Berrigan or Dorothy Day in their critique of American Christianity. It is. I do not believe that political and theologi- cal conservatives have a monopoly on the truth. Look, I’m a conservative Christian. But we have been far too quick to think of the church as the Republican Party at prayer and to think of America as a new Israel. It’s just not true. I love this country, which has been a tremendous blessing to me, but it’s not a New Jerusalem. As Saint Augustine said, any peace we have today is going to be the peace of Babylon, of captivity. I don’t tell people not to be patriotic, but I do say, “Don’t confuse patriotism with national- ism. Always remember that our first loyalty is to God and to Jesus Christ.” I was in New York on 9/11 – I was a col- umnist at the New York Post in downtown Manhattan when the towers fell. I became a vocal supporter of the Iraq War. At the time, I thought I was being very thoughtful, intelligent, and courageous, but in retrospect I realize I was just scared to death and was allowing myself to be manipulated by the gov- ernment. We as the church have to be far more skeptical of what our government does. What effect does the election of Donald Trump have on Christians’ public witness? Does it change anything for the Benedict Option? I was not a Trump voter, or a Clinton voter, and was prepared to be part of the loyal opposition no matter which candidate won. I still am. What does Trump’s election change for the Benedict Option? Only this: I believe it gives us a bit more time to prepare – and, if he puts justices on the Supreme Court who value religious liberty, it gives us a little more space in which to prepare. But the idea that electing a Republican president, especially one as unchristian as Donald Trump, will arrest a cultural process of desacralization that has been underway for centuries – that’s madness! I fear that Christians who were coming to appreciate the perilous position of the church in post-Christian America may conclude that we can all stand down now, that the danger has passed. That would be incredibly foolish. It’s not simply the Democratic Party that threatens authentic Christianity. It’s modernity. The best we can expect of politics is for it to open a space for the church to do its work of conversion and culture-building. The Trump presidency may – may – solve certain