Live Not by Lies
Subtitle: A Manual for Christian Dissidents
Publisher: Sentinel
Published: September 29, 2020
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 304
ISBN-13: 9780593087398
Description: For years, émigrés from the former Soviet bloc have been telling Rod Dreher they see telltale signs of "soft" totalitarianism cropping up in America--something more Brave New World than Nineteen Eighty-Four. Identity politics are 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 hastens the possibility of a corporate surveillance state. And the pandemic, having put millions out of work, leaves our country especially vulnerable to demagogic manipulation.

In Live Not By Lies, Dreher amplifies the alarm sounded by the brave men and women who fought totalitarianism. He explains how the totalitarianism facing us today is based less on overt violence and more on psychological manipulation. He tells the stories of modern-day dissidents--clergy, laity, martyrs, and confessors from the Soviet Union and the captive nations of Europe--who offer practical advice for how to identify and resist totalitarianism in our time. Following the model offered by a prophetic World War II-era pastor who prepared believers in his Eastern European to endure the coming of communism, Live Not By Lies teaches 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 assuming totalitarianism can't happen in their country. Many American Christians are making that mistake today, sleepwalking through the erosion of our freedoms. Live Not By Lies will wake them and equip them for the long resistance.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; label: Part One:
title: Understanding Soft Totalitarianism; label: Chapter One
title: Kolakovic the Prophet; label: Chapter Two
title: Our Pre-Totalitarian Culture; label: Chapter Three
title: Progressivism as Religion; label: Chapter Four
title: Capitalism, Woke and Watchful; label: Part Two:
title: How to Live in Truth; label: Chapter Five
title: Value Nothing More Truth; label: Chapter Six
title: Cultivate Cultural Memory; label: Chapter Seven
title: Families Are Resistance Cells; label: Chapter Eight
title: Religion, the Bedrock of Resistance; label: Chapter Nine
title: Standing in Solidarity; label: Chapter Ten
title: The Gift of Suffering; label: Conclusion
title: Live Not by Lies; title: Acknowledgements; title: Notes; title: Index