There is a big difference between laying down your life for your friends (or loved ones, or perhaps your church) by choice; and living your life for the sake of (in other words, AT THE BEHEST OF) some powerful or charismatic third party.
Granting "another man" control over the direction of your life isn't any more Christian than it is Randian.
Seems so simple, doesn’t it? :{)
Big difference between “for” and “at the behest of”?
I imagine the context in Rand’s writings had to do with her character stating the principles of economic freedom of one kind or another, and indeed that would be nothing to sacrifice for.
In Venner’s case we have a tragic loss of national identity; part of that loss, by the way, is occurring because of Man as image of God is replaced by Economic Man. That is, what he says, something requiring a sacrifice and he indeed sacrificed himself, demonstrably, on the altar of Christ. To tell him “go home, man, put the gun down, don’t you have a magazine to edit” is missing the point of this conversation completely.