Posted on 02/06/2021 4:17:52 AM PST by tired&retired
The New York Times bestselling author of The Benedict Option draws on the wisdom of Christian survivors of Soviet persecution to warn American Christians of approaching dangers.
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.
Per the review
“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.
Ping
I can’t recommend this video enough.
He mentions that Discover Card cut off cardholders from contributing to Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense fund.
Bookmark
Ping
Here is another good video for Christian Conservatives
Rod Dreher on “Resisting Woke”
“Around the year 500, a young man called Benedict fled from Rome to a forest to escape the revelry of city life. He spent three years in a cave as a hermit, preserving his own virtue and praying for society’s moral restoration.
But does a medieval monastic story have any modern-day significance? Rod Dreher, writer for The American Conservative, coined “The Benedictine Option” as a term to convey the challenge of sustaining tradition amidst a “Dark Age.” For such a time as this, St. Benedict’s example might be more relevant than we think. “
World Over - 2020-10-01 - Rod Dreher with Raymond Arroyo
ROD DREHER, senior editor at The American Conservative talks about his new book, Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents.
Dreher explains that we are moving from “authoritarianism” to “Totalitarianism”
The Democrats are now moving from grabbing power and authority to gaining total control of your soul, what you do, how you think, what you say......
Per Wiki for anyone who wants to understand Dreher better
Dreher has been married, since 1997,to Julie Harris Dreher, and is the father of three children.
He lives in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. Raised a Methodist, he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1993, and subsequently wrote widely in the Catholic press.
Covering the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal, starting in 2001, led him to question his Catholicism, and on October 12, 2006, he announced his conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy.
At the time, Dreher had argued that the scandal was not so much a “pedophile problem”, but that the “sexual abuse of minors is facilitated by a secret, powerful network of gay priests”, known as the “Lavender Mafia”.
“...something more Brave New World than Nineteen Eighty-Four.”
I have often thought we are much closer to Brave New World than 1984. Our version of bread and circuses is unprecedented in all of human experience, we have amazing conditions like the poorest being the most likely to be obese.
Freegards
BLOCKED
Bookmark
Received my copy last week.
Finishing a book titled “THE BENEDICT OPTION” now, then into this one.
Interesting comments here.
Dreher’s goal is to profiteer off the agony of those whose plight he describes. He is on the same page as the professional “conservatives” who write for the Times, the Post, and National Review—the so-called “intellectuals” he so ardently admires. Meanwhile, he got the vapors every time Trump sent out a tweet and did all he could to make sure Biden won the election. Forget him and his books.
Frankly, I do not agree with Dreher’s thesis in his book.
Theodore Dalrymple has pointed out that the way Communism controlled people was not primarily by lies (as Rod Dreher believes in his book “Live Not By Lies”), but by public humiliation. California novelist John Steinbeck put it this way: “An unbelieved truth can hurt a man much more than a lie. It takes great courage to back truth unacceptable to our times. There’s a punishment for it, and it’s usually crucifixion”. Moreover, Dreher’s “Benedict Option” calls for retreating and Christianity to move into monasteries to withdraw from society instead of fighting and resisting. Reteatig is just what the Left wants.
Checked and it worked fine.
Must be your parental controls... just kidding.
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