Rod Dreher: The Other Shoe Drops

I've been wondering what happened to Rod Dreher, whose blog at his (new employer) Templeton's BQO site was mysteriously suspended back in August. His blog suspended, and any of his even mildly controversial posts suddenly gone.

What the H E Double Hockey Sticks is going on, anyhow?! I and a lot of other readers of Rod's have been wondering, with no definite answers, for three months now. Hey, I don't always agree with Rod, or with his manic and sometimes OCD tone, even though I often find myself more or less in agreement with him on many issues. But I like Rod, and I've been addicted to Rod's blogging for years, and (as was once said of MTV) I want my Rod Dreher!

Well, looks like we ain't gonna get our Rod Dreher. Not by the avenue of blogging. Not any time soon. Maybe not ever again. Certainly not as long as he's in Templeton's employ. (And thank God Templeton didn't fire Rod, as some have been speculating these past months.) I've asked repeatedly here on my blog, what happened to Rod Dreher? Over at Alexandria there have been lengthy threads here and here, and another comment here, with many of Rod's old readers and commenters wondering and asking and surmising, what happened to Rod Dreher? Now this morning a kindly and anonymous commenter has left a comment here at Bluegrass Up, referring me to a just-posted comment over at Alexandria where Margaret reveals:

I hope I'm not breaking some unwritten Code of Facebook, but Rod made a rare appearance on his page there yesterday, and replied to a few inquiries there with the following:

"Thanks everybody. I'm not sure what to tell you. I don't know what's going to happen with BQO, though my blog is definitely not coming back — not on BQO, for sure, and almost certainly nowhere else, under current conditions. I so appreciate your concern and interest, and I really hope I am free to blog again one day."

Followed by this comment:

"P.S. Sorry, that sounded alarming, and I didn't mean to be. My blogging, for various reason, has become incommensurate with my duties at my real job — and if I had to choose, naturally I'm going to choose my job. Maybe this is the opportunity I need to get off my duff and write that Benedict Option book I've been talking about for years."

Sounds like we may not be getting him back anytime soon. If ever :(

So. The other shoe has dropped. No more blogging from Rod Dreher, leastways not as long as he's working for the Templeton Foundation on its dark throne, "in the land of Philadelphia where the shadows lie."

Well. I first discovered Rod several years ago when I ran across his book Crunchy Cons, and I said, hey, I resemble that. If Rod ever writes his Benedict Option book I suspect I'll say, hey, my neighbors and I resemble that. Because, you know, when I moved in the late 90s from the city to a big old house on a gravel road here far out into deep rural America, I had certain Benedict-option thoughts in my head. Thoughts which I find only reinforced by a recent alarming conversation, about the likely future of American society, with a level-headed and very acute friend of mine who's a professional in the field of urban planning.

Most of my neighbors out here in the middle of nowhere are largely self-sufficient, most are heavily armed, and some are off the grid altogether. If and when the day comes that the White House "pulls a Templeton" and throws the Internet kill switch as the cities burn, I suspect I'll be thinking of Rod and praying for him as I hunker down out here in my remote rural redoubt.