My thanks to the influential Reformed writer Tim Challies for his favorable review of Live Not By Lies. He begins with an excellent summary of the book’s central argument. Then:

The question is, then, could this actually happen in America (and, by extension, other Western nations)? Is Dreher just being a pessimist, an alarmist, a scaremonger? That will be for the readers to decide as they evaluate his claims. But as for me, I think he makes a compelling case. And while he is clear that totalitarianism is not yet inevitable, he does warn that “like the imperial Russians, we Americans may well be living in a fog of self-deception about our own country’s stability” and “it is very hard for Americans who have never lived through this kind of ideological fog to recognize what is happening.” Forewarned is forearmed, as they say.

More:

Live Not By Lies serves two purposes and, in my assessment, succeeds at both of them. It sounds the alarm, warning people to wake up, to see that the enemy is already closing in on the gates. And, in the eventuality or even the likelihood that it is already too late to hold the hoards at bay, it conveys hard-won wisdom from those who have faced a very similar totalitarian foe and overcome. They may have suffered along the way, but they at least maintained their integrity. And in a similar way, we may not be able to overthrow the totalitarianism “out there,” but by heeding their counsel, and searching the scriptures for more like it, we can at least overthrow it “in here,” within ourselves. We can live with dignity, without regret. In a society increasingly drowning in fabrications and falsehoods, we, of all men, must and can live not by lies.

Read it all. It feels great to have the endorsement of a writer like Challies. He did have one bone to pick, though:

And here, in this matter of those who have gone before, I need to point out that Dreher is far more ecumenical than I am. His “saints” span Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox, and Protestant traditions, all of which have very different and even contradictory understandings of the central message of the Christian faith, the gospel of Jesus Christ. He sees more unity between traditions than I can. Yet for the most part these important distinctions in doctrine have little impact on his calls to action, though, to be fair, his Orthodox theology does at times show itself.

Just to clarify, my “ecumenism” here is not of the sort that claims all Christian traditions are equally true. Challies is right that the great traditions all have different understandings. The primary unity I see between traditions, for the purposes of this book, is that when the secret police come for you, it’s not going to be because you are a Protestant, a Catholic, or an Orthodox; it’s going to be because you are a Christian who would not conform to the Big Lie. In the book, I quote former prisoners of conscience saying that suffering for Christ behind bars brought them closer together than one would have imagined.

Say, why don’t you sign up for this online discussion I’ll be having with the estimable Freddy Gray? Here’s the link to register.