In this series, we’ve seen economic evils planned for America by the designers and implementers of a socialist society. In their plans we lose the right to own a home, a car, or anything nice. With socialism we must rely on the government for our daily food, our clothes, and everything else.
We’ve also seen how socialism breaks up our family-based society. Everyone, child and adult alike, must look only to the state for their identity, education, and affiliation. Socialists actively strike down the ideas and institutions that support families and parenting.
This third article of the series examines what a fully-implemented socialism intends to do to the freedom of worship. By its actions it seeks to remove all people inclined to oppose its goals.
Socialism in review
Let’s recall the definition of socialism being used in this series. According to one dictionary, socialism is:
- a theory or system of social organization in which the means of production and distribution of goods are owned and controlled collectively or by the government.
- (in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles.[1]
As detailed in the first article of this series, this definition has these implications.
- Individuals may not own any productive property.
- The government is the de-facto owner of practically everything.
- The intent is to transform human character.
Socialism amounts to a religion, a political theory, and an economic theory, all rolled into one.
Socialism: God can’t be dead, because He never existed at all
Socialists have the chutzpah to insist that the America you know, its institutions and values, must be completely overturned. They’ve reassured themselves that this a good thing because there is no God to tell them otherwise. They believe in Materialism, which is “…the belief that nothing exists apart from the material world (i.e. physical matter like the brain).”[2] This claim, that there is nothing spiritual, and nothing intelligent, that could have created things, denies that any God exists.
A socialist government will have to deal with Christians as enemies, because we’d be condemning their policies from God’s word. It will want to shut us down. Early in his activist career, Vladimir Lenin lectured his fellow socialists on how socialists should treat religion.
So far as the party of the socialist proletariat is concerned, religion is not a private affair. Our Party is an association of class-conscious, advanced fighters for the emancipation of the working class. Such an association cannot and must not be indifferent to lack of class-consciousness, ignorance or obscurantism in the shape of religious beliefs. We demand complete disestablishment of the Church so as to be able to combat the religious fog with purely ideological and solely ideological weapons, by means of our press and by word of mouth. But we founded our association, the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, precisely for such a struggle against every religious bamboozling of the workers. And to us the ideological struggle is not a private affair, but the affair of the whole Party, of the whole proletariat.[3]
That is, while the government can claim be religiously neutral, socialist activists will care about you, your religious practices and attitudes, and make your life difficult until you get with the socialist program.
Believers to be called mentally ill. If there can be no God, then people who persist with religious beliefs are obviously mentally ill, living in a fantasy world. The technique of “psychiatric incarceration” was frequently used against dissidents by Soviet Russia, because you must be literally crazy to oppose the state.[4] Already people in America assert that religion is an illness,[5] so how long before Christians are spirited away for “treatment?”
Public scorn and persecution for believers. People who demonstrate religious behavior will be noticed and punished for it. It’s even happening today, before your very eyes.
- Karen Pence, wife of the Vice President, is supposed to not support a Christian school because it offends someone.[6] She should lose her Secret Service protection.[7] More to the point, religious people should stay out of politics.[8]
- Jack Phillips, cake designer, must give up his religious rights in order to make a living.[9]
- A Ford employee gets fired for not toeing the line with the transgender movement.[10]
- A pizza parlor closes because of internet outrage over how they might handle catering to a “gay wedding.”[11]
The government doesn’t have to directly come for you. Rather, it can pretend to be officially neutral, all the while letting the “Party” do the dirty work (see Lenin’s quote, above).[12]
No soup for naughty people. Remember that Chinese social rating plan?[13] It comes for you, too. Not attending enough socialist classes? Praying at meals? Being turned in by your children for talking about Jesus at home? Soon you’re known in the computers as a malcontent and can’t buy food, or transportation, as you might need.
Socialists are the generation that knew not God (Judges 2:10). The socialist leaders know of the Bible, but they won’t read it or obey it. They won’t let others know of it. They are condemned just as Jesus condemned the Pharisees (Matthew 23:13). They lead the land into great difficulties.
- As in the time of Josiah (2 Kings 22:8-13), the people won’t know what the word is, nor what the Bible is. Nobody will know the revealed concepts of right and wrong.
- Society will know no restraints on lust, self-centeredness selfishness and hard-heartedness. Without God there aren’t internal checks on behavior, and no character-building virtues. Everybody just looks out for Number One.
- No regard for life, other than as a resource to be used and disposed of.[14] Likewise, no concept worth sweating for, crying over, even being a hero for.
One can only hope that such a society is so self-destructive that it quickly does so, that something better can rise in its place.
What’s next?
The fourth, and final, article in this series describes how to recognize your own use of socialist thoughts and phrases. It also shows you ways to contribute to defending your own freedoms from socialism.
Endnotes
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socialism (n.d.), Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, 2010, https://www.thefreedictionary.com/socialism ↑
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McLeod, Saul, Mind Body Debate, 2007, found online at https://www.simplypsychology.org/mindbodydebate.html ↑
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Lenin, V.I., Socialism and Religion, given December 3, 1905, from Lenin Collected Works, Volume 10, pp 83-87, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1965, found online at https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1905/dec/03.htm ↑
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_abuse_of_psychiatry_in_the_Soviet_Union ↑
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Cooper-White, Religion & Mental Health: New Study Links Belief In ‘Punitive God’ To Emotional Problems, Huffington Post, August 15, 2014, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/24/religion-mental-health-angry-god-brain_n_3097025.html ↑
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Haag, Matthew, Karen Pence Is Teaching at Christian School That Bars L.G.B.T. Students and Teachers, New York Times, January 16, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/us/politics/karen-pence-school-lgbt-ban.html ↑
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Brest, Mike, CNN’S JOHN KING QUESTIONS IF KAREN PENCE DESERVES SECRET SERVICE PROTECTION, Daily Caller, January 18, 2019, https://dailycaller.com/2019/01/18/cnn-john-king-karen-pence-christian/ ↑
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Beeson, Katie, The Preacher’s Role, U.S. News and World Report, August 25, 2017, https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2017-08-25/religious-leaders-should-stay-out-of-politics ↑
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Farris, Michael, Colorado’s continued campaign against Jack Phillips, Denver Post, August 19, 2018, https://www.denverpost.com/2018/08/19/colorados-against-masterpiece-cakeshop-jack-phillips/ ↑
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O’Neil, Tyler, Employee at Ford Office Fired After Disagreeing With Transgender Post, PJ Media, January 8, 2019, https://pjmedia.com/trending/engineer-at-ford-plant-fired-after-disagreeing-with-transgender-post/ ↑
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Buckley, Madeline, Threat tied to RFRA prompt Indiana pizzeria to close its doors, Indy Star, April 2, 2015, https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2015/04/02/threats-tied-rfra-prompt-indiana-pizzeria-close-doors/70847230/ ↑
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Lenin, V.I., Socialism and Religion ↑
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Information Warfare: 1984 Becomes Real In 2024, Strategy Page ↑
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Shaw, Adam, Virginia Gov. Northam faces backlash for comments on 3rd-trimester abortion bill: ‘Morally repugnant’, Fox News, January 30, 2019, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/va-gov-faces-backlash-for-comments-on-controversial-third-trimester-abortion-bill ↑