Rod Dreher on Defending and renewing Western and Christian Civilization

 This is an interesting video that brings together a number of authors and themes that I've been chewing on in recent years:  He talks about Patrick Deneen's thesis in Why Liberalism Failed, about how Christianity has been supplanted in the hearts of many by "spin-off religions" such as "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism" or "Social Justice Warrior-ism."  He discusses Alister MacIntyre's After Virtue, and how the Benedictine monasteries preserved Western Civilization as the Roman Empire collapsed and knowledge and technology actually regressed.  He discusses practical things that we can be doing to help preserve the legacy of all that is best in Western Civilization (while also being frankly honest about the bad and the ugly).    

Definitely alot to chew on here (and maybe a bit some readers may want to spit back out); I certainly think Dreher is on the right track here, and have come to see my role as a parent and as a spiritual father to my church as passing on, first and foremost, the Biblical faith in Christ, and secondly as passing along the very best of the Western tradition to others.