Songs For The Benedict Option

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A couple of you have sent me this song by a singer/songwriter named Bill Mallonee, suggesting it as a theme song for the Benedict Option:

Winnowing (CD, Vinyl or Digital Download formats!) by Bill Mallonee & The Darkling Planes

Here are the lyrics:

IN THE NEW DARK AGE (the only lamp burning bright is you)

All the dominoes fell

we went under a spell

and all hell. broke. loose.

Everything you held dear

when the dust finally cleared

it was just as you feared

Chorus:

In the new dark age

Nobody puts up a fight

In the new dark age

You’ll see no flares in the night

The only lamp burning bright…is you

All the mask came off

All disguises were dropped

The game was declared over

Love was escorted out

There was hardly a shout

I’ll take the crimson & clover

We’re all mystics & freaks

With the spirit beneath

Deeper than any ocean

Let the string section “riff”

Seal it up with a kiss

Honey, we are all golden

In the new dark age

no one trusts anyone

In the new dark age

they forget to have fun

The only light from the sun…is you

In the new dark age

nobody puts up a fight

In the new dark age

you’ll see no flares in the night

The only lamp burning bright…is you

The only lamp burning bright…is you

Nice. If I were writing it, I would only tweak it to say that the only lamp burning bright is us, and then put a verse in about Christ as the light of the world, and the only reason we burn in the darkness is that He burns within us. Then it would be truly Ben Oppy, though I would have to get over my reflexive, irrational prejudice against contemporary Christian music in order to listen to it.

And then there’s this 2004 standby, “Dégenération,” from the Quebecois band Mes Aïeux, which wouldn’t take much alteration — a verse about the loss of faith and Christian tradition — to be a perfect Ben Op song:

One great thing about that song is the final verse tells the listeners not just to mourn, but to get off their butts and do something about it.

If you have any song suggestions for the Benedict Option playlist, let’s hear them.