Kerby Anderson

Two months ago, I interviewed and wrote two commentaries on the book by Rod Dreher, Live Not by Lies. I wanted to revisit this book for a number of reasons. More Christians are making positive comments about the book and encouraging others to read it. John Stonestreet recently did a Breakpoint commentary on it and says it is a vital book for Christians to read. Kelly Shackelford of First Liberty Institute and his wife are doing a Bible study on the book. For these and many other reasons, I think the book deserves another mention.

He says we are faced with a new totalitarianism that is different from the past. The old totalitarianism was implemented by the state (Nazi Germany, Communist Russia) and dedicated to the eradication of Christianity. The new totalitarianism is what he calls “soft totalitarianism” and comes from progressive groups. You don’t end up in the gulag by challenging leftist beliefs about race, gender, or sexual orientation. But you can lose your social media account, you can lose your job, and you can even lose your opportunity to pursue a degree program on many campuses.

He believes the watershed event took place when Indiana wanted to pass a Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That was not controversial when it was passed in 1993 by the federal government. But much has changed. Corporations shut down offices in Indiana. The NCAA threatened to move the Final Four basketball tournament. Supporters were threatened with boycotts and even physical violence.

In his chapter on woke capitalism, he documents how this set the stage for our current trend in which business and media force their leftist agenda on the American people. He says we can learn from the stories he provides of Christians who endured hard totalitarianism. These are lessons that I think we need to learn.