Are alternative, off grid lifestyles possible?

Separation from a hostile state might be wise

What positive action can we take in response to the introduction of state-sanctioned killing, thanks to UK Labour’s euthanasia bill? I suggested on twitter that the church might need to consider providing its own health and education services separate to the NHS, as we used to do. Yes, there would be many obstacles - some deliberate, as Labour’s VAT raid on private schools demonstrates. But at the bare minimum, perhaps we could prepare ourselves to be willing to take in the terminally ill into our own homes and nurse them ourselves?

Who has time to do that, you might ask? Well, that is one of the insidious problems of modern life. The cost of living and high taxes mean we have to work too hard - and our children are looked after by strangers at nurseries and at schools that often teach anti-Christian ideologies. It seems impossible to get out of this “system” and live a life that is more in tune with Christian values.

There is a small proportion of society who manage to live very differently from the modern mainstream - who seek to be free of bills, mortgages and stress, and instead gain time, relationships and prayer. Religious examples include cloistered monks and nuns and the Amish and Mennonite communities. Often they aim to produce their own food and so be outside of the governmental demands of taxes, unattainable red tape and running on the stressful treadmill of the rat race, all of which distract us from loving God and loving others.

But in recent years a real boom in alternative lifestyles has come through environmentalism. The latter might have been tainted in public imagination by a focus on tiresome protesting and big government initiatives that tend to make life more difficult - e.g. net zero. But the greenies I really admire instead try to make a difference with their own lives, rather than those who seek to impose their big state demands onto others.

One example is the ‘permaculture’ movement, so called because rather than modern horti- and agri- versions of culture, there is more concern for long term sustainability. Their goal is to go off grid and so not be dependent on electricity and gas, and also to grow their own food as much as possible. This has been driven by apocalyptic fears about the state of the environment.

However more recently, the scandalous cost of housing and the energy-sapping demands of modern careers have led others to choose extreme downsizing, living in a very small one room hut, or even a motor vehicle. This “tiny house” movement (and that of “van life”) offer a slower, more simple life where people are emancipated from wage slavery.

Right now there are more urgent apocalyptic fears than climate change, I’d argue, war being an obvious one. But even more concerning is the increased hostility of the state towards Christians, and the rapid deterioration in our social fabric, which is producing an increasingly threatening environment, and I think it’s wise to consider how we can best protect ourselves against trouble ahead.

I have a much more personal, practical reason - to try to resist the spread of cancer, I need a slower lifestyle with more time for prayer, which means I have to decrease my monthly outgoings so that I can work less, and possibly not work at all, depending how my health progresses. I also need a low cost supply of nutritious vegetables!

If this all sounds a bit radical - there are less intensive options to try to reduce our dependence on the state and increase community resilience, which I’ll perhaps write about in the future. But I think it’s worth at least studying the lifestyles of those who take a more radical approach to see if it’s an option or just to learn from them. Here are some suggestions for inspo:

The 2012 documentary ‘The Amish: a secret life’ does a good job of explaining the logic and faith behind these tech-phobic Christian communities, as well as being really rather beautiful. The two parents are ‘born again’ which is why they’re willing to be filmed, which is usually outlawed by Amish churches. Their rules might seem strange, but there is a Christian reasoning behind them, such as farming so that children can spend time with mum and dad, and avoiding technology if it can interfere with community life. It is available online but on which platform depends on your country.

Rod Dreher

’s book “The Benedict Option” has spawned a bit of reflection on similar ideas, and I think some Christians are trying to form groups around its principles. In essence, he suggests that St Benedict’s response to the deterioration of society in Rome was to form monastic communities and separate himself from ‘the world’ as much as possible. I wonder though, if the sacrifice of monasticism was required for this to succeed? It also seems possible to live more separately from the state and also work for the common good, e.g. having a ‘normal’ employment.

I follow a few Substacks that are relevant to these questions, such as:

Catholic Permaculture

,

Huw Richards

,

Hadden Turner

and another good one that I can’t seem to find!

The Catholic Land Movement started at the 20th Century and has seen a recent uptick in interest, mostly in the USA but there are a few people I’m aware of in the UK too. A non-Amish Christian venture is the Homestead Heritage in Waco, Texas - there are a few interesting YouTube vids on them.

There are non-religious options, and a search on YouTube for ‘permaculture’, ‘tiny homes’ or ‘off grid’ will bring up umpteen videos of people living different lifestyles. I found the following short video of a family living on a quarter of an acre particularly inspiring. Their goal, of independence from the demands of making money, and the prioritising of love and relationships, seems to be a wonderful expression of the teaching of Jesus:

“At the moment our bank is our woodpile and our cellar at this time of the year and our seed bank and things like that. But our knowledge bank can never be taken away unless, you know, until we die.

“So teaching our kids that the most important economy is relationships and our knowledges - and those knowledges and those relationships have nothing whatsoever to do with money, makes us extremely resilient for the things that we face in the future and therefore we feel empowered.

“So money to us is not wealth at all. Wealth is time, time-richness, family time, community time, and knowledges, accruing knowledges.”