Rod, the documentary, at least the first episode, is fantastic. Definitely spot on about the “soft”
Totalitarianism we all endured and are still enduring (although it seems a bit more muted at present). But I couldn’t help thinking that Trump may represent not a soft but a real totalitarianism if we are not careful. I’m not an anti trumper and I still hold out hope that good will come from his presidency, at least in the long run, but he does have some very totalitarian instincts .
No, he’s going “Boniface Option” — read in this newsletter’s archives my take on that book. He’s very angry and dark. Not my kind of person. The best thing I can say about it is that it is not enough to organize and juice our hates.
Big day! Can't wait to watch. My grandfather left Budapest for NYC before WWII but that didn't stop him from mourning the failed uprising in 1956. Glad the voices under this regime are being heard.
It is so important to keep these stories alive. I was blessed as a child to know Richard Wurmbrand who spent 14 years tortured for Christ in a Romanian prison. He was a dear friend of my dad's, Dave Hunt, and stayed in our home when he came to America to testify before Congress. To have spent time with a true martyr, to look into his eyes, and hear his story and that of his wonderful wife from their own lips changed my life.
In 1967, my family smuggled Bibles into Romania, my dad praying God would blind the eyes of the guards at every checkpoint and he did. I will never forget the tears of joy when we delivered the Bibles.
Wurmbrand said the same as the message if this film, these courageous men and women tried to warn the West and we didn't listen.
I don't think we can stop the tide but we must never stop telling their stories. The day will come when we will have to make such tough choices as they did and I pray we are up to the task.
One reason why little in the media is devoted to the crimes of Communism but the crimes of the Nazis are so commonplace in the media is that for much of the left the Communists weren't such bad people. They were trying to right the wrongs of Capitalism but some Communists went a little too far. Nikita Khrushchev and Hubert Humphrey and Clement Attlee had a lot of things to agree on. If it wasn't for those meanies on the right like John Wayne and Ronald Reagan, the forces of the left might have prevailed and the world would be a happy and safe place, there would a piece of tofu or bowl of bran on every dinner plate, and the people would ride bikes to work instead of automobiles.
Remember that old wheeze, Marxists are liberals in a hurry? And there's the great passage in Witness in which Chambers delineates why anticommunism drove liberals around the bend: because they couldn't really argue with the bolsheviks' desiderata.
Indeed. The only crimes of communism in the left's eyes are that previous iterations were either too poorly or too timidly executed, but the current bunch is so much smarter and more virtuous, they can't fail to produce Paradise For All.
Wow! Thank you, Rod, that you continued faithful though everything. Thank you for telling these stories to the world. This is breathtaking. What is to come tonight is breathtaking. And yes, for the young!
The letter! And the picture of Mirlada - her eyes! After all she went through - what an inspiration!
Part 2, yes! Prayers. Congrats on JD coming and my he say something that causes media stories :)
You may not see the comment here, but I'll get this to you eventually. My time in Georgia, and particularly my conversation last night there showed how opposition to totalitarianism and revival, particularly among the Orthodox, is a dual but united ministry. Should God lead - and I do not know that He will - you can do much, specifically among nominal Orthodox in former Soviet lands.
I got mine! (Membership in the Angel Studios Guild.) I’ve read most of Live Not By Lies and now look forward to taking in the film.
RE: “I know why Hollywood and the media preferred to ignore it (namely, that so many of them sympathize with the aims of Communism), but why do the rest of us go along with it?”
I think it has a lot to do with the puddle-deep harmony of a core Communist principle—“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”—with Acts 4:32 (“The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common”).
To be sure, we’re a post-Christian civilization now. But Christian social concepts still guide the thinking of even the most atheistic and anti-Christian folks we live among. They may not recognize the roots upon which they build their twisted post-Christian ideologies. But roots are stubborn things. And when it comes to twisting truths, the Angel of the Bottomless Pit is one cunning character.
You probably know that there is a follow up to that Acts scripture? In fact, there are four different scriptures that mention collecting money due to needs in Jerusalem. Communism, but is among the greatest poverty-causers ever. Left wing economics in general are such. I support right wing economics because they do more to help the poor.
Yep, first off, it was a community of believers volunteering, not the state imposing top down. Second, they did that because they thought Christ's return was within their lifetimes. Third, when what they were doing proved economically untenable, which it always does, they ended up having to go back to their fields, trades and other ways of generating resources and wealth. The Bible also says, "who does not work, shall not eat." YEs, we are to provide for those who truly cannot provide for themselves, but no one is owed the means of another. Even Paul, the greatest Evangelist, mightily man of God and reknown scholar of religion, also had to fall back on his tradecraft as a tentmaker at times to earn his own keep. In fact, insisted on it, even when others offered to feed and take care of his needs. He refused to be a burden, earning his way.
And yet for centuries monasteries practiced small-c communism and they were long centers of innovation and industry. The key appears to be the small scale: a few dozen maybe up to a hundred people can live communistically. An entire society cannot. (Families of course are the ultimate socialist institution-- nobody-- I hope-- tosses their kids or their infirm elders out because they aren't contributing their "fair share".)
The best economics is a regulated capitalism with an ample safety net. By regulated I'm talking things like anti-trust measures and strict limits on how large any single corporation can grow (and common sense stuff to defeat corruption, cronyism and the like). The safety net is necessary to limit the "destruction" aspect of "creative destruction"-- in the last forty years we've seen the result of letting corporations toss people and whole communities into the Dumpster of the Unfit and it's horrible.
Bravissimo! It's a great book, and now this documentary appears to add depth to what you recorded in print. The Anglosphere and western Europe *need* to listen to these people.
I do too!!! You know how to use the VPN to see it, correct? But you hope there is a way for others to see it who do not use VPN that way?
And Giuseppe: my good news about Italy: My (unofficial) godson Jahir- the boy from a poor Honduran village whose education I decided to sponsor after meeting him, now 14 - is coming to live in Rome for 15 months! He won a academic of all, all of Latin America in order to get a scholarship to an IB school there. I'll visit and he'll come here for Christmas and I want him to see the documentary.
I’ve been working on a literature curriculum for my son who will be a junior next year. I’m going to include this documentary! I’ve also learned a lot from commenters here about other authors, such as Gary Morson, that I’m excited to read and include bits from. It’s important to me that my children have a good understanding of how totalitarianism works, both fascistic and communistic. I read a lot as a young adult about communism on my own: you can’t unsee it once you do.
I just watched Part 1 this morning after breakfast with my wife. Honestly, hands down the best documentary on totalitarianism I have ever seen. My wife cried during the stories told. Our meager support of this film at least means my family and I helped Rod in some small way. For that I am grateful.
Years ago I commented in a post on the American Conservative, before Live Not By Lies was yet published, that I prayed and hoped Rod’s book would help us change course. I prayed that political leadership would take notice of Rod’s work. To see JD Vance is a supporter is a prayer come true!
Rod Dreher is truly a blessing. He has been used by God as a defender of freedom. May our faith in God and Freedom grow, strengthen, and be protected by “LIVE NOT BY LIES”! Thank you for all your hard work, Rod! Hats off to you! Hats off to you!
Congrats Rod! I will be watching soon.
Rod, the documentary, at least the first episode, is fantastic. Definitely spot on about the “soft”
Totalitarianism we all endured and are still enduring (although it seems a bit more muted at present). But I couldn’t help thinking that Trump may represent not a soft but a real totalitarianism if we are not careful. I’m not an anti trumper and I still hold out hope that good will come from his presidency, at least in the long run, but he does have some very totalitarian instincts .
A prayer and study group I lead will probably watch this after Easter. I am looking forward to it.
BTW, Rod, have you seen Tucker Carlsen’s interview of Isker? It sounds like Isker is going Benedict Option!
No, he’s going “Boniface Option” — read in this newsletter’s archives my take on that book. He’s very angry and dark. Not my kind of person. The best thing I can say about it is that it is not enough to organize and juice our hates.
I know you don't like him. And I much prefer your books to his. But I think you two have more (good) in common than you think.
Big day! Can't wait to watch. My grandfather left Budapest for NYC before WWII but that didn't stop him from mourning the failed uprising in 1956. Glad the voices under this regime are being heard.
Congratulations! Looking forward to watching.
Congratulations!
It is so important to keep these stories alive. I was blessed as a child to know Richard Wurmbrand who spent 14 years tortured for Christ in a Romanian prison. He was a dear friend of my dad's, Dave Hunt, and stayed in our home when he came to America to testify before Congress. To have spent time with a true martyr, to look into his eyes, and hear his story and that of his wonderful wife from their own lips changed my life.
In 1967, my family smuggled Bibles into Romania, my dad praying God would blind the eyes of the guards at every checkpoint and he did. I will never forget the tears of joy when we delivered the Bibles.
Wurmbrand said the same as the message if this film, these courageous men and women tried to warn the West and we didn't listen.
I don't think we can stop the tide but we must never stop telling their stories. The day will come when we will have to make such tough choices as they did and I pray we are up to the task.
One reason why little in the media is devoted to the crimes of Communism but the crimes of the Nazis are so commonplace in the media is that for much of the left the Communists weren't such bad people. They were trying to right the wrongs of Capitalism but some Communists went a little too far. Nikita Khrushchev and Hubert Humphrey and Clement Attlee had a lot of things to agree on. If it wasn't for those meanies on the right like John Wayne and Ronald Reagan, the forces of the left might have prevailed and the world would be a happy and safe place, there would a piece of tofu or bowl of bran on every dinner plate, and the people would ride bikes to work instead of automobiles.
Remember that old wheeze, Marxists are liberals in a hurry? And there's the great passage in Witness in which Chambers delineates why anticommunism drove liberals around the bend: because they couldn't really argue with the bolsheviks' desiderata.
Indeed. The only crimes of communism in the left's eyes are that previous iterations were either too poorly or too timidly executed, but the current bunch is so much smarter and more virtuous, they can't fail to produce Paradise For All.
Wow! Thank you, Rod, that you continued faithful though everything. Thank you for telling these stories to the world. This is breathtaking. What is to come tonight is breathtaking. And yes, for the young!
The letter! And the picture of Mirlada - her eyes! After all she went through - what an inspiration!
Part 2, yes! Prayers. Congrats on JD coming and my he say something that causes media stories :)
You may not see the comment here, but I'll get this to you eventually. My time in Georgia, and particularly my conversation last night there showed how opposition to totalitarianism and revival, particularly among the Orthodox, is a dual but united ministry. Should God lead - and I do not know that He will - you can do much, specifically among nominal Orthodox in former Soviet lands.
I got mine! (Membership in the Angel Studios Guild.) I’ve read most of Live Not By Lies and now look forward to taking in the film.
RE: “I know why Hollywood and the media preferred to ignore it (namely, that so many of them sympathize with the aims of Communism), but why do the rest of us go along with it?”
I think it has a lot to do with the puddle-deep harmony of a core Communist principle—“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”—with Acts 4:32 (“The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common”).
To be sure, we’re a post-Christian civilization now. But Christian social concepts still guide the thinking of even the most atheistic and anti-Christian folks we live among. They may not recognize the roots upon which they build their twisted post-Christian ideologies. But roots are stubborn things. And when it comes to twisting truths, the Angel of the Bottomless Pit is one cunning character.
Angel of the Bottomless Pit... I may have to use that some time.
Alternatively "Angel of the Abyss." It's from Revelation 9:11. Spooky stuff.
You probably know that there is a follow up to that Acts scripture? In fact, there are four different scriptures that mention collecting money due to needs in Jerusalem. Communism, but is among the greatest poverty-causers ever. Left wing economics in general are such. I support right wing economics because they do more to help the poor.
Yep, first off, it was a community of believers volunteering, not the state imposing top down. Second, they did that because they thought Christ's return was within their lifetimes. Third, when what they were doing proved economically untenable, which it always does, they ended up having to go back to their fields, trades and other ways of generating resources and wealth. The Bible also says, "who does not work, shall not eat." YEs, we are to provide for those who truly cannot provide for themselves, but no one is owed the means of another. Even Paul, the greatest Evangelist, mightily man of God and reknown scholar of religion, also had to fall back on his tradecraft as a tentmaker at times to earn his own keep. In fact, insisted on it, even when others offered to feed and take care of his needs. He refused to be a burden, earning his way.
And yet for centuries monasteries practiced small-c communism and they were long centers of innovation and industry. The key appears to be the small scale: a few dozen maybe up to a hundred people can live communistically. An entire society cannot. (Families of course are the ultimate socialist institution-- nobody-- I hope-- tosses their kids or their infirm elders out because they aren't contributing their "fair share".)
Once again, no state involvement. Two, skilled tradesmen who worked for a living and traded their goods fir others. No one ride for free.
Families are nit business, states or economies, and their roles and expectations ate Biblically laid out.
The best economics is a regulated capitalism with an ample safety net. By regulated I'm talking things like anti-trust measures and strict limits on how large any single corporation can grow (and common sense stuff to defeat corruption, cronyism and the like). The safety net is necessary to limit the "destruction" aspect of "creative destruction"-- in the last forty years we've seen the result of letting corporations toss people and whole communities into the Dumpster of the Unfit and it's horrible.
As usual, Nothing in Excess is the best advice.
Amen, brother.
Quite an accomplishment. Congrats.
Bravissimo! It's a great book, and now this documentary appears to add depth to what you recorded in print. The Anglosphere and western Europe *need* to listen to these people.
Looking forward to it.
Rod, any idea whether the film might get a shot at smaller, independent theatres nationwide, if it takes off online?
Given the number of us who contributed to the effort, I predict a spike in Angel Guild members this week!
I saw a news article about 10 minutes ago (finance news) saying that they hit 1 million members in March.
Wow! Look at this article on JD's upcoming remarks tonight:
https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/03/31/exclusive-vance-attend-heritage-foundation-premiere-documentary-soviet-era-christian-dissidents/
It's out now! Rod gave the membership link - here is viewing:
https://www.angel.com/watch/live-not-by-lies
Great news Rod! Hope that's available in Italy
I do too!!! You know how to use the VPN to see it, correct? But you hope there is a way for others to see it who do not use VPN that way?
And Giuseppe: my good news about Italy: My (unofficial) godson Jahir- the boy from a poor Honduran village whose education I decided to sponsor after meeting him, now 14 - is coming to live in Rome for 15 months! He won a academic of all, all of Latin America in order to get a scholarship to an IB school there. I'll visit and he'll come here for Christmas and I want him to see the documentary.
Ah, that's really wondeful news! Best wishes and prayers for Jahir! I really hope he will enjoy Rome!
The Angel guys told me it is available all around the world, via the website angel.com
Great to know
Trying the app now on my TV, seems to work
I’ve been working on a literature curriculum for my son who will be a junior next year. I’m going to include this documentary! I’ve also learned a lot from commenters here about other authors, such as Gary Morson, that I’m excited to read and include bits from. It’s important to me that my children have a good understanding of how totalitarianism works, both fascistic and communistic. I read a lot as a young adult about communism on my own: you can’t unsee it once you do.
I just watched Part 1 this morning after breakfast with my wife. Honestly, hands down the best documentary on totalitarianism I have ever seen. My wife cried during the stories told. Our meager support of this film at least means my family and I helped Rod in some small way. For that I am grateful.
Years ago I commented in a post on the American Conservative, before Live Not By Lies was yet published, that I prayed and hoped Rod’s book would help us change course. I prayed that political leadership would take notice of Rod’s work. To see JD Vance is a supporter is a prayer come true!
Rod Dreher is truly a blessing. He has been used by God as a defender of freedom. May our faith in God and Freedom grow, strengthen, and be protected by “LIVE NOT BY LIES”! Thank you for all your hard work, Rod! Hats off to you! Hats off to you!
Yes, yes, amazing! I could hardly look away and sat stunned during the credits. Please subscribe - so worth it. You will not be sorry.
Thank you brother. That means the world.