Persecution is on its way to America. Time to head to the monastery?

Have you noticed more and more Christians talking about preparations for an increase in persecution of US Christians?  It does look clear that more persecution is on the horizon.  But then there's a question of how we respond to this threat.  I hear more and more people throwing up their hands and saying, let's prepare to be persecuted. The church grows best in an environment of persecution anyway.  We should pull out of the "culture war" and work on living a quiet life of holy community.  The Great Commission will no longer be pursued through sacrificial proclamation of the gospel but through monkish living and hospitality.

Here's an article that eloquently describes this idea, from the perspective of a "crunchy conservative."  They call it the Benedict Option (or Ben Op to be cool).

I do not agree with the premise of this movement.  God grows His kingdom as he sees fit in all political environments, but historically, the kingdom of God has grown best and most rapidly during eras of peace (watch it grow through history here) and with the efforts of his followers to go out and disciple the nations at great risk to themselves, by people who see themselves as unstoppable because of the presence of King Jesus going with them(Matt 28:18,20b).

So here are my two conclusions: First, the church should not disengage, but instead should work to disciple the nations and teach them to obey everything King Jesus commanded (Matt 28:19-20).  US Christians have far more influence than any other block of Christians in the world.  What a cop-out to go and hide in a corner because of the small pressures we are facing.  Doing so would leave Christians in persecuted countries on their own (look at what the Obama era did to Christianity in the Middle East).  Neglecting our role of cultural impact would be a lousy way to love our US neighbors as well. 

Secondly, US Christians should continue to boldly carry the gospel to our fellow citizens and to the unreached of the world.  In an age where church "missions" has been restricted mostly to relief work, we need to think about how we can use our vast resources and influence to make disciples of all nations and baptize them.  With our technology, relative wealth, and a dominant English language, we have every reason to feel excited about evangelism in our lifetime.  And even if we didn't have those advantages, we would still have the call and empowering of God.