Rod Dreher has spent greater than 20 years saying that neighborhood, religion and farms maintain us linked to what issues greater than political fads and digital developments ever may.
Dreher has helped intellectually lead the cost in seeing these apparent information. So it isn’t shocking that Dreher would care about telling the reality, or as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn places it in a 1974 essay, “[living] not by lies.“
That singular instruction is on the middle of Dreher’s e book “Stay Not By Lies,” much more so than in his different works “Residing in Surprise,” “The Benedict Possibility” and “Crunchy Cons.”
Angel Studios brings a four-part collection on the topic to screens this week.
What comes throughout in “Stay Not By Lies” is the stripped-away indisputable fact that falsehood results in devastation and why humanity has an necessary problem to inform the reality.
Angel Studios president Jordan Harmon described the response to the docuseries by its Angel Guild members as “nothing wanting extraordinary.”
The collection “speaks to the center of human wrestle and triumph.” It “dives deep into the lived experiences of survivors of Soviet totalitarianism, translating their tales into a strong narrative about resilience, religion, and the timeless battle towards oppression,” states an Angel Studios press launch.
“The collection goals to not solely recount the harrowing realities of previous totalitarian regimes but additionally to discover how these classes might be utilized to the modern-day challenges of what Dreher describes as ‘comfortable totalitarianism’ within the West.”
The collection has even gained the eye of Vice President J.D. Vance
EXCLUSIVE: VP @JDVance will give remarks Tuesday at a brand new docuseries premiere on Christian dissidents in Soviet-era Russia.
The occasion at @Heritage hosted by Angel Studios will function the present based mostly on @roddreher‘s “Stay Not By Lies.”https://t.co/pqgiQhUEn6
— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) March 31, 2025
A widespread but grievous expertise for a lot of Individuals is for opinions that they earnestly wish to share to be silenced on social media platforms.
That censorship paves the way in which for propaganda, a observe that has assist in choose authorities our bodies. The First Modification, relatively than being universally celebrated, is seen by some communications officers as an “impediment.”
A whole lot of tens of millions of taxpayers’ funds have been allotted to combating “misinformation” and “disinformation”–as conceived by officers–and producing propaganda to advertise extra-Constitutional federal authorities agendas.
Reflecting on historical past, Dreher means that individuals who worth telling the unfettered reality must domesticate friendships and communities at a scale, sufficiently big however not too large, to protect it as a worth it doesn’t matter what could occur to a civilization that embraces the false.
As smaller village residing grows extra common, the creator of “The Benedict Possibility” says Individuals needn’t be unnoticed of getting a way of tight-knit, high-trust neighborhood for sharing speech even when residing “on-grid.” Neighborhood, church and on-line teams are fertile observe grounds for talking reality to others.
The Mennonite mother and father of a number of youngsters, certainly one of whose life was misplaced at a hospital, lately gave an interview to right information media smears of their household. Their phrases additional uncover hyperlinks between reality and neighborhood within the face of distortions.
Why should the ethic of truth-speaking cease on the property line of any specific like-minded neighborhood? Residing not by lies is the idea for a shared society that may encourage these inclined to unfold reality like wildfire.
The on-the-ground manufacturing firm for “Stay Not By Lies” is Root/Trigger, with Isaiah Smallman directing. RJ Moeller and Dave Jacobson are the collection’ producers.
Dreher serves as Govt Producer, stating, “This documentary collection is just not solely about remembering the previous however about equipping ourselves for the longer term. The voices of those that have seen the darkest features of totalitarian life should not be misplaced; they provide us a beacon of reality in difficult occasions.”
The filmmakers are taken, in keeping with the press launch, “from the streets of former Soviet territories to the properties of those that survived one of many deadliest centuries in historical past.”
“Stay Not By Lies” is now accessible on the Angel Studios’ platform. It performs out in 4 episodes, with new installments dropping every week.
