Sometimes people ask me what I post about without reservation on social media.
My response is always the same: I am unapologetically pro-life and pro-freedom.
I will make my voice heard on behalf of the unborn. I will make my voice heard on behalf of those who are enslaved. I will speak out against Planned Parenthood and their pro-death standards. I will speak out against Communist China and its subjugation of Hong Kong. My weapons are words. I am angered – even as I type these words on my keyboard – thinking that anyone would be politically oppressed because they had the audacity to want to speak freely.
Enter Gina Carano. The actress, fitness guru, and MMA fighting champion was recently fired by Disney. Why? She compared Jews being attacked by neighbors ahead of the Holocaust with Americans who are cancelled for their political views. Disney took offense and fired her. Let me say this up front: I don’t agree with her comparison. We are not at THAT moment in history (though I think it could be coming soon enough). But I do agree with her concern with “cancel culture” and I CERTAINLY agree with her right to say that “cancel culture” is a portent of things to come. [See her own comments here. Notice the word choices in a main stream media article like this: “controversial,” “politically charged,” and “conservative.” Are these words, or their opposite, used when a narrative from the progressive mindset is referenced? Simply, no.]
Dreher’s chapter five, “Value Nothing More Than Truth,” opens with Vaclav Havel and the famed “Greengrocer Essay” (97-98). The final lines of Havel’s piece should be etched in stone,
“He gives his freedom a concrete significance. His revolt is an attempt to live within the truth.”
Against those who dare to be free is the totalitarian system, no matter its name. Havel says the system’s “demoralization” is its greatest weapon (99). But with one of my heroes, Alexandre Solzhenitsyn, Dreher repeats the Russian proverb,
“One word of truth outweighs the whole world.”
What does it take, to take a stand? “Choice” and “resolve” (101). Yes, but how? Dreher entertains that remembering those who have sacrificed is essential (102). Plant gardens. Build monuments. Tell stories. Never forget. What else does it take, to take a stand? “Reduced expectations of worldly success” (103). Expected to be mocked, ridiculed. Expect to lose position because you won’t compromise. Moreover, “reject doublethink and fight for free speech” (103). It will cost you something (104) when accused for not following the party line, the accepted political structures. [Note, a list of Twitter accounts which have been frozen or eliminated altogether, including the national organization defending free speech, Speech First, here. See my own experience on Facebook in my review of Dreher’s chapter four.]
“Conscience” (105) is the weapon. Deciding that truth matters, will cost. “Prudence,” however, is to be measured along with freedom-loving stands. One must decide what can be done within the beliefs of what should be done (106). What act, what statement, what belief is worth losing everything: popularity, position, purse? The section ends with dissidents who know, who have lived the reduction of freedom
“Sometimes silence is an act of resistance. Keeping silent when you aren’t expected to be silent. That, too, is telling the truth” (107).
But, to me, the key statement is made by Dreher
“Refuse to let the media and institutions propagandize your children. Teach them how to identify lies and to refuse them” (108).
Wary of “rationalization” (ketman, see my chapter one review of Live Not By Lies), stand for those who cannot, speak for those who have been silenced, remember those who have sacrificed before, tell the story of free people, no matter the cost. 
A biblical worldview is essential to combat the spread of lies, of cancel culture, of ending a person’s employment because they did not agree with you. Often, the only time we hear outrage about a person’s words is when those words go against the accepted narrative of the progressive culture. The biblical narrative runs counter to cancel culture with its focus on freedom within responsibility:
- Political power (Deut 17:14-20; 1 Sam 8:10-18) suggests that leaders should be careful custodians of God-given authority. Government should protect the freedom of individuals, with the fewest possible restrictions. Limited administrative power prevents abuse of position.
- In the New Testament, “authority” meant one had the ability to give orders (Matt 8.9), tell others what to do (Luke 7.8; 19.17), or submit to others’ authority (1 Pet 2.13). The Greek word for authority means “freedom of choice.” How much authority one has determines the amount of control one has over her life, and the lives of others. How one uses her authority is another issue. Jesus had authority to lay down his life of his own accord (John 10.17-18). Paul used his authority to build up not tear down (2 Cor 10.8; 13.10).
- The Egyptian and Babylonian views of “time” emphasized a cyclical or circular view of history, leaving people at the mercy of perceived impersonal, whimsical, supernatural forces. The Hebrews, on the other hand believed in the personal, eternal creator giving folks meaning, potential, fulfillment, and a goal in life. Each day is a new choice, opportunity, and responsibility with something and Someone to live for (Ecclesiastes 5:18-20).
Picture credits: Snappygoat.com, Gina Carano, By Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41633864. Vaclav Havel, By Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA – VACLAC HAVEL, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74769308
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