Rod Dreher, "Live Not by Lies"

Rod Dreher, the author of Live Not by Lies, draws on the wisdom of Christian survivors of Soviet persecution to warn American Christians of an approaching danger.

For years, immigrants from the former Soviet bloc have been telling Rod Dreher that they see telltale signs of "soft" totalitarianism cropping up in America, something not unlike Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.  Identity politics is beginning to encroach on every aspect of life. Civil liberties are increasingly seen as a threat to "safety". Progressives marginalize conservative, traditional Christians, and other dissenters. Technology and consumerism hasten the possibility of a corporate surveillance state. And the pandemic, having put millions out of work, leaving our country particularly vulnerable to demagogic manipulation.  In Live Not by Lies, Dreher repeats the alarm sounded by these brave men and women who fought totalitarianism. 

Dreher explains how the totalitarianism facing us today is based less on overt violence and more on psychological manipulation.  He retells the stories of modern-day dissidents, the clergy, laity, martyrs, and confessors from the Soviet Union and other captive nations of Europe, who offer practical advice for how to identify and resist totalitarianism in our time. 

Live Not by Lies offers to American Christians a method for resistance:
  •  SEE:         Acknowledge the reality of the situation.
  •  JUDGE:   Assess reality in the light of what we as Christians know to be true.
  •  ACT:        Take action to protect truth.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn famously said that one of the biggest mistakes people make is to assume totalitarianism can't happen in their country.  Many American Christians are making that mistake today, sleepwalking through the erosion of our freedoms.