A Review of Live
Not By Lies by Nick Olszyk
Distribution Service: Angel Studios Streaming
FCC Rating, TV-PG
USCCB Rating, Not rated at the time of this review
Reel Rating, Three Reels
Jesus
famous said, “the Truth will set you free.” By inversion, a lie will enslave
you. Live Not By Lies, the new Angel Studios miniseries based on Rob
Dreher’s bestselling book, immerses the viewer in a world not too long ago which
ran almost entirely on a diet of falsehood. Yet out of this dystopia, many
voices rebelled and eventually conquered the lies, giving a method against
similar movements today.
The basic
plot of the series involves “the lie” as a primary tool of totalitarianism and
how to fight effectively. Although the series looks at many examples, it
primarily examines the Soviet Union’s control over Eastern Europe in the 2nd
half of the 20th century. The audience meets a wide range of
dissidents and activists including Kamila Bendova, a Czech mathematician who
organized an underground book club that read Western literature that would
include the later president of the country. Many of these individuals are only
in their late 60s or early 70s. The tortures of the glugs and intense scrutiny
of the Statsi occurred quite recently but seem forgotten the moment the Berlin
Wall fell. Yet echoes of this tyranny are still felt today. For example, Isabel
Vaughan-Spruce was arrested in 2022 for praying
quietly outside an abortion clinic. Then there are many tragic
stories of parents who lost custody of children after refusing to affirm
their child’s gender dysphoria.
There are
many fascinating stories in Live Not By Lies but no central narrative.
Instead, it features four episodes on thinking, remembering, identifying, and
living. This causes the show to wander and at times seem aimless. Occasionally,
it acts like a Ken Burns documentary with old photographs and narration. Other
times, it features sit down interviews with conservative intellectuals like
James Orr and Douglas Murrey. Thus, the series doesn’t work too well as
straightforward episodic program but better as a video podcast one can pick up,
set down, and start up again.
The series
presents two large antidotes to totalitarian lies. The first is religion.
Christianity is a threat to state control because it sees truth and value in a
common humanity rather than a single political entity. God is also eternal and
supernatural, whereas the state can only work with the material. If humans can
find their peace and meaning through love of God and neighbor, then they don’t
need to find it through government sponsored programs. This is why totalitarian
systems, both on the left and the right, have always suppressed religion. All
dictators and their laws are temporary, but God lasts. He also created the
Universe and all its ordinances, so alternative laws and structures will never
create lasting peace. When the people understand this, oppression seems to be
the only option, but God promises “the darkness will not overcome.”
The other
antidote is the family. One surprising aspect of Soviet dissidents was their
large family sizes. Despite Bendova being blacklisted and her husband forced
from the university into hard labor, they raised six children in a tiny
apartment. Families create bonds built on faith and blood rather than political
ideologue. They support one another, even when they disagree. This is connected
to religion because the family is a domestic church, an evangelical witness to
the gospel. When lived rightly, the Christian husband and wife act as Christ
and the Church towards one another, showing the world the truth of God’s
properly ordered love. The state tries to stop the family by encouraging
abortion, promiscuity, or – if children must be had – forcing them into state
run centers. In one the most heartbreaking sequences, Bovi Martin – a Romanian
dissident – recalls working in an orphanage with appalling conditions where
children were raised like an assembly line, changed, fed, and trained to work
in factories with no love or education. Fortunately, he was able to find
families in the West for some of them.
It’s easy in 2025 to think that this world is behind us. Yet, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn stated in his infamous 1978 Harvard address, the West has become complacent in its worldly pleasures and now we are facing ever greater calls to censorship, especially in the areas of religion and the family just as before. It can happen again, and it will happen again. Yet the gospel gives us the tools to keep the human spirit alive, and we have the promise that Christ “will be with us, until the very end of the age.”
This article first appeared in Catholic World Report on May 12th, 2025.
Comments
Post a Comment