On Resistance and Rebuilding

Continuing the work of countering our culture:  

Christians are not only strangers in a strange land. We are not only at odds with the world around us. We are not only called to resist all that goes against God and his word. We are also called to be part of a new counterculture. We are also called to take part in a rebuilding project. That is a major theme of the new book by Andrew Torba, Reclaiming Reality.

The subtitle of the book is “Restoring Humanity in the Age of AI”. As I said in my two previous pieces on this book, it is not just about things like transhumanism and AI, but a call for Christians to resist and rebuild. The West is at a crossroads, and we can either seek to make Christianity great again, if I can put it that way, or we will see it further erode and disappear.

Here I want to feature some quotes from his chapter on “The Parallel Polis”. Torba wants us not to retreat or to surrender, but to rebuild a Christian culture. The chapter begins this way:

Empires rise and fall, but those who build in truth outlast them all. For centuries Christians have found themselves at odds with the dominant culture and political powers of their time. Whether under the Roman Empire, the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, or the rising globalist technocracies of today, the Church has often been forced to choose between submission to a corrupt order or the creation of an independent parallel society that operates according to God’s law rather than man’s dictates. The Parallel Polis model is the most viable path forward for Christians in the age of artificial intelligence, mass surveillance and algorithmic control.

 

The term “Parallel Polis” originates from the resistance movement in communist Czechoslovakia, where Christian dissidents, intellectuals, recognized the impossibility of reforming an oppressive regime from within, instead focused on building their own independent cultural, economic and social institutions. They printed their own literature, created underground education networks and developed parallel markets that operated outside of state control. The key insight of the Parallel Polis is simple but profound: when the mainstream system becomes hostile to truth and virtue, the answer is not to fight for scraps from within it, but to build an alternative.

 

Today, Christians face a similar moment of decision. We live in a world where institutions that once served as pillars of civilization – the media, academia, finance and, sadly, and sadly even many churches – are now openly hostile to biblical Christianity churches. The censorship and deplatforming of Christian voices, the erosion of religious liberties, and the encroachment of AI-driven social engineering all point to a future where believers will be increasingly shut out from the mainstream institutions unless they conform to the prevailing secular ideology. In this environment, the Church has two options: it can either submit to the demands of the new digital tyranny or it can take action by creating a Parallel Polis suited for the modern world. (pp. 68-69)

He looks at some key areas that need to be reclaimed, such as education, economic independence, media and information, and even the Church itself. He goes on to say this:

It is important to recognize that building a Parallel Polis is not about isolationism. Christians are not called to retreat into enclaves and ignore the world. Rather, they are called to build an alternative that stands as a testament to what a society rooted in truth, beauty and righteousness looks like. The goal is not to abandon the world, but to offer it something better. This has been the pattern throughout history. When Rome collapsed, it was the Christian monastic communities that preserved knowledge, order and culture. When state churches became corrupted, faithful believers built new congregations that revived true worship. When hostile ideologies took over the mainstream, Christians created parallel institutions that carried the faith forward. The question is not whether a Parallel Polis will be necessary – it already is. The question is whether Christians will act now to build it before they find themselves entirely dependent on a system that hates them. The time to start is today. By reclaiming education, securing economic independence, developing free media and strengthening local church communities, Christians can create a parallel society that does not merely survive the coming challenges but thrives in the midst of them.

 

History vindicates this strategy. The early Church itself functioned as a parallel polis within the Roman Empire, creating a shadow society with its own ethics, economy and eschatology. Monasteries preserved Western civilization during the Dark Ages by becoming arks of liturgy and learning. The Waldensians, defying medieval ecclesiastical corruption, forged clandestine networks of Bible-literate communities in the Alpine valleys, preserving Scripture…. (pp. 71-72)

He looks further at communist regimes that tightened their grip on Eastern Europe, and he highlights two Czech visionaries: Václav Benda and Václav Havel:

[They] emerged as defiant architects of hope. Their homeland, Czechoslovakia, languished under the boot of Marxist-Leninist dogma, where dissent was crushed, truth was criminalized, and the human spirit was suffocated by ideological conformity. Yet in this spiritual desert, Benda, a Catholic philosopher, and Havel, a playwright steeped in existential humanism, kindled a revolutionary flame: the parallel polis, a subterranean society operating beyond the reach of the Party’s omniscient gaze. This was not mere resistance—it was a metaphysical insurgency, a reclaiming of human dignity and transcendent truth in a world enslaved to materialist lies. (p. 73)

He continues:

Today, as the West succumbs to the Globohomo Regime—a new totalitarianism draped in rainbow flags and digital surveillance—Benda and Havel’s blueprint demands revival. The tools have evolved: encrypted messaging apps replace samizdat mimeographs; homeschooling co-ops leverage online curricula to bypass woke indoctrination. Yet the strategic imperative remains unchanged: construct parallel institutions that operate by Kingdom ethics, not state decrees. Imagine decentralized cryptocurrencies freeing commerce from ESG tyranny, or mesh networks hosting uncensored sermons and scholastic debates. Picture homeschooling collectives raising a generation fluent in Scripture and natural law, or underground media empires producing films that glorify Christendom’s heroes rather than deconstruct them.

 

The parallel polis’s genius lies in its duality—it is both refuge and beachhead. It preserves the faithful during cultural dark ages while training them to reclaim occupied territory. As Benda argued, such structures are not “apolitical” but metapolitical, shaping the moral imagination of societies before they even grasp their own enslavement. The early Church understood this, turning Roman households into cells of resurrection hope. We must do likewise, building banks, schools, and media that answer to Christ alone. (pp. 73-75)

Torba looks in some detail at Havel’s 1978 political essay, The Power of the Powerless and then says this:

Every pride flag flown under corporate duress, every genuflection to gender ideology in academia, every coerced apology for “harmful” speech reinforces the regime’s legitimacy. Conversely, every refusal to comply – a professor teaching biological reality, a parent rejecting school indoctrination, a pastor defies lockdown edicts – strikes at the system’s foundations. The battle is not fought with bullets but with symbolic resistance: homeschooling co-ops, parallel economies, underground publishing. These acts constitute what Havel calls “living in truth” – a reclamation of moral agency that transforms politics from spectacle into sacrament.

 

The essay’s enduring relevance lies in its diagnosis of a universal human temptation: to barter principle for peace…. (p. 78)

And the daily choices we make will either move us closer to or further away from where we ought to be:

The Parallel Christian Society arises from this daily guerrilla warfare against conformity. It is not a geographic enclave but a network of reconsecrated spaces – homeschool co-ops replacing woke classrooms, agrarian communes reviving stewardship of land, underground apps sharing uncensored sermons. Like the early Church’s catacomb congregations, these structures thrive precisely because they reject the Regime’s liturgy of lies. . . .

 

Building this parallel reality demands more than stubbornness – it requires a metaphysics of resistance. To reject the Regime’s narrative is to affirm a higher sovereignty: Christ’s kingship over culture, law and even death itself. When we homeschool children despite state threats, or tithe to dissident media over Netflix subscriptions, we enact a sacramental rebellion. These choices are exorcisms, expelling the Regime’s demons from baptised ground. The cost will be steep – isolation, stigma, perhaps persecution – but the end of compliance is infinitely greater: the surrender of our children’s souls and the eternal silencing of truth. The Regime’s greatest fear is not angry mobs but empty theaters – citizens who exit its stage to build anew in the wilderness…. (pp. 80-81)

He reminds us that this work will always come at a cost: “The task of constructing a parallel society has always demanded a martyr’s resolve – a willingness to endure hardship, scarcity, and even death for the sake of principles that outlive the individual.” (p. 83) As examples, he mentions the Pilgrims who crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower, the American Revolutionaries, and others.

And he says we can make use of some of the new technologies in all this:

We are not mere passengers awaiting rescue; we are shipwrights, already crafting arks in dry dock. Elon Musk’s SpaceX and X (formerly Twitter) exemplify this shift. By privatizing space exploration in creating the digital public square, Musk has circumvented NASA’s bureaucracy and legacy media’s gatekeepers. Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, for all its flaws, proved that a college dropout with code could reshape global communication more decisively than any nation-state. These men are not saints, but their empires reveal a tectonic truth: technology has democratized the tools of societal creation. The lesson for Christian parallel society-builders is clear. We need not seize control of Harvard or the New York Times; we must render them obsolete….

 

Yet this work demands more than innovation; It requires a theology of exile. The Babylonian captivity, not the Promised Land, is our immediate model. Like Daniel, we must master the regime’s tools without absorbing its values. Like Nehemiah, we must rebuild the walls of Jerusalem while armed with both trowels and swords. The Regime will retaliate – not with muskets, but with algorithms that shadowban, banks that deplatform, and laws that criminalize dissent. But our ancestors endured worse…. (pp. 84-85)

Yes, brave resisters in the past had to pay a heavy price. We will as well. But if that is what it takes to keep the fires of freedom burning, and the future for our offspring safe and secure, then we must be willing to pay that price. And with God’s help we can do it.

(BTW, one can strongly agree with someone on a number of issues, but also strongly disagree with them on some other matters. If I quote or promote someone on some things, that does NOT mean I fully support them on everything! This includes my take on Torba.)

[1806 words]