Rod Dreher

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Rod Dreher
Born (1967-02-14) February 14, 1967 (age 57)
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Louisiana
Residence Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Nationality American
Alma mater Louisiana State University (BA)
Occupation Columnist, writer
Website The American Conservative: Rod Dreher

Ray Oliver "Rod" Dreher (born February 14, 1967) is an American mainstream conservative writer and editor. Culturally right-leaning though with a strong interest in social justice, he is a senior editor and blogger at The American Conservative and author of several books, including How Dante Can Save Your Life.

He has written about religion, politics, film and culture in National Review and National Review Online, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal, Touchstone, Men's Health, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications. He was a film reviewer for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and chief film critic for The New York Post. His commentaries have been broadcast on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and he has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Court TV and other television networks.[1] Like most mainstream conservatives, Dreher rejects the concept of human biodiversity, but believes that all races are cognitively interchangeable, and that any differences between them are exclusively caused by their past experiences. His distaste for political confrontation has led him to be branded a cuckservative by right-wing opponents,[2] though he is often praised from the left.

Early life

Rod Dreher was born on February 14, 1967 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was raised in the small town of St. Francisville. He graduated wth a BA in journalism from Louisiana State University.

Career

Dreher wrote regularly for National Review in 2002 and 2003. One of his essays explored a subcategory of American conservatism he defined as "granola conservatism", whose adherents he described as "crunchy cons."[3] He defined these individuals as traditionalist conservatives who believed in environmental conservation, frugal living, and the preservation of traditional family values. They also express skepticism about aspects of free market capitalism and they are usually religious (typically traditionalist Roman Catholics or conservative Protestants). Four years later, Dreher published a book that expanded upon the themes of this manifesto, Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, Gun-Loving Organic Gardeners, Evangelical Free-Range Farmers, Hip Homeschooling Mamas, Right-Wing Nature Lovers, and Their Diverse Tribe of Countercultural Conservatives Plan to Save America (or At Least the Republican Party).[4] He later wrote a blog at beliefnet.com with an emphasis on cultural rather than political topics.[1][5]

He was an editorial writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News, but left in late 2009 to become the publications director for the John Templeton Foundation.[6] On August 20, 2011, Dreher announced on Twitter that he was leaving the Templeton Foundation in order to return to full-time writing.[7] In 2013, Dreher published a book titled The Little Way of Ruthie Leming about his childhood in Louisiana and his sister's battle with cancer.[8] In 2015, Dreher published How Dante Can Save Your Life, a memoir about how reading Dante's Divine Comedy helped him after his sister's death.[9]

Rejection of right-wing activism

Dreher has endorsed the "Benedict Option," the idea that Christians who want to maintain their faith should separate themselves to some extent from mainstream society and try to live in intentional communities or other subcultures.[10][11][12] (The phrase comes from Alasdair MacIntyre's 1981 book After Virtue, referencing Benedict of Nursia.)

His book The Benedict Option was published in March 2017 and was praised in the New York Times, as “the most discussed and most important religious book of the decade.”[13] The book was lauded by many left-leaning and moderate reviewers, including by Rowan Williams, who said "The book is worth reading because it poses some helpfully tough questions to a socially liberal majority, as well as to believers of a more traditional colour."[14]

Admiration for Judaism

Dreher's endorsement of Christian communities withdrawing from mainstream society rather than attempting to resist it has been reflected in his admiration for Orthodox Jews. "We Christians have a lot to learn from Modern Orthodox Jews," he said in a 2017 interview with The Atlantic, "They have had to live in a way that's powerfully counter-cultural in American life and rooted in thick community and ancient traditions," he said. "And yet, they manage to do it."[15] In an opinion piece on The American Conservative blog he added, "to readers of this blog who harbor anti-Semitic views: don't even try to post them here. Anti-Semites are among the vilest people." Later in the same post he expressed support for the American–Israel alliance, writing: "Personally, I strongly believe in the US–Israel alliance."

Personal life

Dreher married his wife Julia in 1997. They have three children: Matthew, Lucas and Nora.[1]

Raised as a Methodist, Dreher converted to Roman Catholicism in 1993. He wrote widely in the Catholic press, and covered the Roman Catholic Church's child sex abuse scandal, starting in 2002, which led him to a deep disillusionment with Catholicism.[1] He was particularly outraged by the U.S. Catholic Church's practice of transferring abusive priests, barred from service in America, to parishes in Latin America, Europe and Asia. Additionally, Dreher discovered the Catholic parish he was attending was serviced by a priest accused of molestation, and that the parish council had not informed the congregation about the accusations.[16] Dreher and his family began attending liturgy at Saint Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral of Dallas, and on October 12, 2006, he announced his conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy.[17] At the time, Dreher had argued that the scandal was not so much a "pedophile problem", but that the "sexual abuse of minors is facilitated by a secret, powerful network of gay priests" referred to as the Lavender Mafia.[18]

Bibliography

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Critical studies, reviews and biography

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References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Web page titled "Our Speakers:/Rod Dreher" at the website of the Orthodox Speakers Bureau, retrieved March 18, 2009
  2. Vox Day (Dec 13, 2017) http://voxday.blogspot.com/2017/12/surrender-he-cucked-cucklishly.html
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  4. "Crunchy Culture: Author Rod Dreher Has Defined A Political Hybrid: The All-Natural, Whole-Grain Conservative", by Hank Stuever. The Washington Post, May 3, 2006
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  13. David Brooks | http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/01/rod-drehers-monastic-vision%7Ctitle=Rod Dreher’s Monastic Vision|website=The New Yorker|access-date=2017-05-15
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  18. The Gay Question: Amid the Catholic Church’s current scandals, an unignorable issue
  19. Online version is titled "Rod Dreher's monastic vision".

External links