The monastic rule penned by St. Benedict was one of rigid moral absolutes with no room for question. After all, he was about “to found therefore a school for the Lord's service.” And there was no question about this calling in his mind. Deviation from this rule carried severe consequences. Simply misquoting Scripture carried an extreme penalty and “children, for such a fault, shall be whipped.” After all, monks had a “fear of hell” that drove them to live in steadfast obedience. The monk was to devote his entire life to God, which in the thought of St. Benedict meant a life of monastic service.
The rule is arranged in numerical order with each segment detailing a particular rule or procedure. From this list, one can gather that monastic life was grueling and left little to no room for individuality. Monks were all united under a single idea, that being devotion to God. According to the code, the monks' main meal was a large serving of bread, and even this was only received twice a day. These men were to live a mainly silent life, aside from Scripture quotation and prayer. The monk was disallowed any material possessions, “neither a book, nor tablets, nor a pen-nothing at all.” The code left no room for drunkenness, sexuality, or any other personal choices that the current Western culture would generally take for granted.
However, we can still see the effects of this rigid Christian moral code at work in our society today. Looking at the current political climate, one can see the continued effects of orthodox Christianity, be it for the better or the worse, as the top issues are of primary concern to those orthodox members of the Christian faith. Another place in which Christian thought seems to prevail is in the current dialogue of life ethics. Consider the current issue of bio-ethics and stem-cell research. Viewing the issue a-religiously, there really is not much of an issue. But for those orthodox members, discontinuing even undeveloped life is often equal to murder. Also still-present are the observance of religiously oriented holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Such observance has become an especially divisive topic in recent years with the influx of diverse religious traditions and belief systems. As can be seen, the orthodox Christian ethic system has survived the ages, even if St. Benedict's code is not necessarily observed in our modern time. But as the current culture attempts to fuse diverse religious tradition with a group of people still clinging, be it knowingly or not, to orthodox tradition, one can expect to see a great deal of strife until a new stability is reached.
