Trust & Obey

Okay, so I finished this book the other day and I knew I had to review it. It’s very different from the usual Christian self-help books that are currently sweeping the nation. Dreher calls for us to wake up and start standing for our Christian beliefs before it’s too late.

Live Not By Lies: A Manual For Christian Dissidents kicks off by showing you what soft totalitarianism is. More than likely, you know what totalitarianism is and what it looks like. Think of communist Russia or communist Czechoslovakia. Well, Dreher proposes the United States is dealing with “soft totalitarianism” which is where totalitarianism doesn’t come in with guns and brute force, but asking for gentle submission. It wants to lull the people to sleep, take over, and when they wake up it’s already done. They have lost.

The second section tells the tales of Christian dissidents (or rebels) and how they resisted totalitarianism and communism while still maintaining their faith. Dreher talks about how as Christians we must resist totalitarianism because they will take away Christianity. Religious freedoms aren’t apart of the program. For us, today’s woke culture is the new religion.

In my opinion, this book is incredible from start to finish. I find this topic fascinating and if politics aren’t your cup of tea I would still suggest this book. It’s important to be educated on this topic so that when push comes to shove, we will be ready. We need to be aware of what’s happening in our society and thoughtful about what’s going on. If we sit idly in ignorant bliss, we will lose our religious freedoms.

If I were to put any warnings on this book, it would simply be that there’s some rough stories. Dreher did a good job keeping the gory details of certain stories at a minimum, but I do think hearing these stories is critical to counting the cost of being a Christian in a time of persecution. It isn’t meant to scare, but to show you what you may pay to follow Christ.

Live Not By Lies was a phenomenal read that was enough to explain it’s opinions and ideas well, but not too long that you couldn’t read it in a couple of sittings. I would absolutely recommend this to any high school or adult reader!

Do you have any interest in reading a book like this? Tell me about it in the comments section!