Soviet Rule or Christian Renewal?

Third and Last in a Series

“What is past is prologue” was William Shakespeare’s magnificent summation of man’s position in the vast stream of history. The time has arrived for us, as Christians and as Americans, to peer ahead and see what we as individuals and church members can do to help make this a better world in which to live. Atheistic communism has now been with us as a state power for almost a half century. Talk as we will concerning the past, we cannot undo, revise, or alter the events of the years. “What is past is prologue”—and we must build for the future.

Today two vast ideological worlds confront each other, worlds which embody different deities and conceptions of man. Casting our eyes down the avenue of the next generation, we may pose the issue between the worlds as Communist domination or Christian rededication. Shall the world fall under the cold hand of dialectical materialism where every man must conform to the atheistic, irrational, and immoral laws of a way of life which is contrary to the divine Intelligence? Or shall the answer be a rededication to Christian moral values, a digging deep of the wells of personal faith in the bottomless ocean of God’s love and the creation of a society which is in harmony with the laws of God?

Will it be the cold world of Communist conformity, or the eager, active, and genuine world of religious dedication?

Unfortunately today many people, watching the Communist world in action, have become defeatist. They see bustling energy, teeming exhilaration, and powerful personal energies keyed to promoting self-sacrifice, fanatical zeal, and Party accomplishments. In deep anguish, they say, “How can we compete against such a powerful and dynamic ideology?”

The answer to this skepticism (highly unwarranted, as we shall see) lies in understanding the dynamics of motivation in a Communist society.

Communism has the power to stimulate intense, fanatical, and sustained effort. If we would peer into the day-to-day activities of the Communist Party (U.S.A.), for example, we would see a vast panorama of demonic rushing and counter-rushing. Members are eternally busy making speeches, collecting money, and passing out handbills. The moment one emergency is surmounted, another arises, more breath-taking and earth-shaking than the former. Like ants scurrying on a hot summer day, Party members are whirling fanatical action at all levels of the Party.

This incessant Party activity arises, to a large extent, because of what the Communists call ideological cultivation—which means an educational program designed to immerse the individual in Communist thought for the purpose of making him a more effective Party member. Communists speak of ideological cultivation as a weapon of attack. Actually it is the foundation stone of Marxism-Leninism.

TRAINING NEW RECRUITS

A recruit joins the Party. Immediately he is sent to a Party school to learn, among other things, the ideas, opinions, and prejudices of the Communist “masters” (Marx, Engels, and Lenin; Stalin is now “out of date”). Regardless of how busy a member may be in everyday Party work or how long he’s been in the Party, he must continue to attend indoctrination schools and do home work. Among Party slogans is “One night a week for Marxist study.”

The idea is to make the member think like the Party “masters,” to imbue him with the Communist personality of these men. To the Communists, the reading, studying, and discussion of Communist “classics,” such as Marx’s Capital and Lenin’s State and Revolution, as well as the latest works of the current Party leaders, help raise the Communist qualities of the members. “Strive to become the best pupils of Marx, Engels and Lenin.…” These source books of Communist doctrine, in the Party’s eyes, give the members a sense of Communist purpose and direction and a zeal to push forward to achieve the Party’s goals.

Hence, to the Communists, the member must, in the Party’s language, constantly raise his own ideological level, that is, increase his knowledge of the Party’s doctrines. Gradually, under such an educational program, the member becomes an “advanced” or “mature” Communist able to handle the most difficult of Party assignments. Such an individual, because of his indoctrination, automatically thinks as the Party wants him to think, subordinates his personal desires to the interests of the Party, and works only for Communist goals.

Here arises the dynamics of motion in communism. In the Party there is a close relationship between theory and practice. Ideological training is designed to make the member a man of action—revolutionary action. The member is steeled in revolutionary discipline, armed for battles in the fields of infiltration, agitation, and propaganda.

At first blush communism may seem almost like an invincible monster. Admittedly, it can engender tremendous personal effort and zeal, but it has a tragic flaw, a flaw which heralds its eventual destruction.

Communism is anti-God: this is its fatal weakness. Hence, it is contrary to divine laws which give meaning, validity, and depth to the dignity of human personality. The world of communism, despite its overt bustling, energy, and action, is a cold world of sterility, conformity, and monotony. One is no longer regarded as a child of God, to bloom from spiritual roots. Rather, a deadly sameness is enforced, and the individual becomes a robot of the state, servile in thought, and groveling in attitude. The great seedbeds of dissent are deracinated. Critical thought and independent judgment are hunted down and destroyed. Freedom of expression is prohibited. Purges, concentration camps, and faked trials betray the poisonous hand of communism which corrupts everything it touches, creates error, evil, and sin, and transforms love into hate, justice into slavery, and truth into falsehood.

Contrasted to the world of Communist conformity, we as Christians have the unmatched power of Christ. The task for us is spiritual rededication—the creation of a world of love, justice, and truth. This is the Christian ethic which is part of our heritage. Ministers have a vital role in helping to roll back the iron curtain of communism and making real the world of divine love.

HOW COMMUNISM WORKS

In discussing such a mission, let us see what we can learn from the Communists by noting the way in which they inspire their members.

1. Note the Communists’ emphasis on returning to the original source of their beliefs to secure inspiration for their members. Communists encourage members, young and old, to study the Party’s “classics.” To read such books, they say, is to gain personal guidance and raise the members’ Communist qualities “in every respect to the same level as those of Marx, Engels, Lenin.…”

Answer: Think how much more enriching, rewarding, and satisfying are the original sources of Christian belief than the writings of the bigoted minds of the Communist “masters.” The Bible is the Word of God. But besides the Bible, the writings of men of God, both clerical and lay, over 20 centuries are also guidelines to personal action. Do we as Christians take enough time to read the Bible—and these other affirmations of our faith? Do we quench our spiritual thirst (symbolized by the troubles, tensions, and anxieties of the day) with the truth ground in such sources? Are we digging deep enough in the wells of our faith? Most truly, the Bible gives inspiration, zeal, and guidance for life. To neglect it, is to reduce our national vitality and strength.

2. Communists stress not only the reading of Marx, Engels, and Lenin, but reading them constantly—on a daily or weekly schedule—and never neglecting this habit even though the member becomes older. “Comrades! Of course it is no easy matter to take Marx, Engels, and Lenin … as our models in self-cultivation and to become their most faithful and best pupils. It calls for an iron will and firm determination.… It calls for a life-long devotion to studying Marxism-Leninism.…”

Answer: How many Christians read the Bible only on special occasions? How many Christians set aside a certain amount of time each day or week for reading religious literature? Do some Christians regard the Bible as a book only for children; do they think that as adults they have outgrown it? Do we view the Bible as an “antique book” which has no message to our modern age? Do we display the same “iron will and firm determination” to learn the Christian faith as the Communists do for their ideology?

These are key questions, striking at the very heart of our religious faith and practices.

3. The Communists have no use for a mere ceremonial avowal of Marxism or members interested only in acquiring a minimum knowledge of ideology. “Every one of our Party members should not merely be a member of minimum qualifications … but should rather seek to make progress and ceaselessly raise his or her own consciousness and understanding of Marxism-Leninism.”

Answer: Here again serious challenges are posed. How many church members today are merely members in name, not knowing or even caring what membership in the church of God really means and entails? Do some members object to learning about the tenets of their faith, and say that a few minimum requirements are enough? Has our Christian heritage been diluted by the inroads of secularism and materialism? Is our faith in God a growing, creative experience? Or are we satisfied with lesser visions of inspiration? The answers to these questions will help chart our way.

4. At all times the Communists stress the relationship between theory and action. To study the Communist “masters” is to ready oneself for revolutionary action. Communists are not interested in preparing members to parade their Marxist IQ’s or pass academic examinations. Their knowledge must become a weapon to turn the world upside down for communism. “We study for the sole purpose of putting into practice what we have learnt. It is for the Party and for the victory of the revolution that we study.”

Answer: In Christianity the study of the Bible is a guide to action—action in building a deeper Christian experience for the individual, and a better, more wholesome community. Are we as Christians adapting to actual practice the teachings of Christ? Are our day-to-day actions in the secular world determined by our Christian beliefs? Is the church—the Christian pulpit—effective today in determining men’s actions? Are there individuals who think the church is a “good” organization to have in the community but should not be taken too seriously in everyday community action? These are challenges to us today.

5. The Party stresses the development of the “politically mature” comrade, the individual on whom it can depend to carry out its mission. The whole purpose of ideological cultivation is to produce the member who will become a better Communist and work for the revolution.

Answer: Christians are also working for a revolution—a revolution of the spirit, not the sword. Deeply-committed Christians are needed to carry on the work of the Church, to uphold the Judaic-Christian faith. We may raise the question, are we working tirelessly enough to create these deeply-committed Christians? Are we training our members to buckle on the full armor of God, to commit their full lives to Christ? Working for Christian goals is a full-time job, not just a task for Sundays or evening meetings.

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL

How can we compete against such a powerful and dynamic ideology as communism? By way of answer we must say that as Christians and as Americans we can compete. We can defeat this atheistic enemy by drawing upon our spiritual resources.

Make no mistake about it, the struggle ahead is real. The Communists are determined, rugged, and treacherous enemies. The ideology of communism, as we have seen, generates great power. But the faith of communism is a perverted faith, giving predominance to evil, sin, and wrong. It draws its strength from deceit, chicanery, and hypocrisy. That is its fatal flaw, the rotten core which spoils the fruit of its branches.

The future, to a large extent, will be determined by what we as Christians have to say and do. Those who are ministers of the Gospel can help determine this fateful decision: shall it be a world of Communist domination or Christian rededication? Shall it be the cold world of Communist inhumanity, sterility, and conformity, where the bodies, minds, and souls of men become as stone, lifeless in the darkness of atheistic perversity, or shall it be Christian regeneration, where the power of the Holy Spirit floods in with joy, love, and harmony?

No group in America has a more key responsibility than the clergy. The answer to communism must be on a spiritual level. As representatives of a great tradition, the clergymen of America must light men’s souls with deep enthusiasm for the teachings of Christ. A God-centered nation, ever humble before the majesty of the divine Creator, can keep alive freedom, justice, and mercy. This is the heritage of America.

Samuel M. Shoemaker is the author of a number of popular books and the gifted Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. He is known for his effective leadership of laymen and his deeply spiritual approach to all vital issues.

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.