Just got back from a wonderful couple of hours spent with new friends who are readers of this blog, and the Benedict Option. They are Presbyterian Christians living here in Sydney. Without a doubt the best thing about this book and the places it has taken me is meeting people like Chong and Dan.

At the end of our conversation, we talked briefly about the West as a civilization, and why it matters. It’s about our shared faith, certainly, but also things like the sense of justice and mercy that emerged in the West. How marvelous that these men, these Christian men, and I stand together as believers in the Christian faith — a global faith, one that began in the Near East — but also as heirs to and believers in a particular civilization, that of the West.

I have to say too that even though we just met, they know me well. Look what they brought me as a souvenir of Australia. Never heard of this stuff, but I can tell you for sure that my family and I will be excited to have it and eat it: