I've taken a look at one or two of these already, but I look forward to combing over the rest.

My short analysis of the book is that it is generally good, but that the Benedictine framing is not necessary and is part of the reason why the book is critiqued so heavily. I think that Dreher would consider any truly Christian community a "Benedict Option community."

I haven't read Archbishop Chaput's column, but I'm absolutely on board with Dreher's alarmism. The situation is quite dismal. Demographic shifts will put the Church in a very tough spot in the future. Young liberals simply have no sympathy for religious freedom for orthodox Christians. It isn't hard to imagine the sort of people I went to college with tolerating just about any form of coercion of churches--revoking of tax-free status or fines for illiberal views, or whatever--if they formed a sufficiently large portion of the electorate.

That said, it's hard to imagine any grassroots movement preventing that. Maybe in the long term.