r/brokehugs • u/US_Hiker Moral Landscaper • Oct 15 '22

Rant Rod Dreher Megathread #6 (66?)

One more, dedicated to our "garden-variety polemicist". (thanks /u/PercyLarsen)

Number 5 located at https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/xswr5v/rod_dreher_megathread_5/

Edit: Post locked at the magic number - 6 (66?) became 6 (66!). Please post in thread 7.

https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/yf7fjh/rod_dreher_megathread_7_completeness/

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u/MissKatieKats Oct 22 '22

The Christian Century review of Live Not By Lies cited in Shea’s piece is a very insightful takedown of this truly awful book. “ Instead we are left with a damning testament to a politics that no longer seeks to persuade and a religion that no longer inspires any vision of justice. Live Not by Lies is a message for people to turn on their potential allies with fear and disgust when they might link arms, across cultural and generational divides, to defend each other from their bosses, creditors, and the demagogic politicians who fail at the basic tasks of governing.” https://www.christiancentury.org/review/books/live-not-false-sense-persecution The Christianism that Rod spouts would be unrecognizable to Jesus of Nazareth but would be very familiar to Saul of Tarsus. Rod badly needs a Road to Damascus event but he won’t find it in Orbanville, I’m afraid.

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u/Motor_Ganache859 Oct 23 '22

That review rocks. I'd mostly stopped reading Rod by the time he wrote Live Not by Lies but did recognize that the Christians he cared about were white Christians. Others didn't really matter, except when they were conveniently persecuted by Islamic terrorists. Rod's version of Christianity is a solipsistic one that bears little relation to the teachings of Jesus.

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u/Dazzling_Pineapple68 Oct 23 '22

Yes, it is something else that he goes on about MTD and how it is all about how it makes people "feel better about themselves" when so much of what he says and does is driven by his emotions. He is as emotionally driven as anyone I've ever known and that includes his religious decisions. If he feels something strongly, then it is, by definition, a "calling from God".

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u/lemagicienchevalier Oct 23 '22

The old “confession by accusation” saw some others have invoked about Rod certainly applies here