Too Many

Lech Walesa, their revered leader, said, “if you choose the example of what we Poles have in our pockets and in our shops … communism has done very little for us. But if you choose the example of what is in our souls, I answer that communism has done very much for us. In fact, our souls contain exactly the opposite of what they wanted. They wanted us not to believe in God, and our churches are full.”

For just a moment, let us take note of what a future president John F. Kennedy said was his view of communism as he spoke to an audience at Assumption College in June 1955. He told the audience that the communist had a “fear” of Christianity and allowed “no room for God.” JFK went on to say that communists sought: “to make the worship of the State the ultimate objective in life” and that they could not “permit a higher loyalty, a faith in God, a belief in religion that elevates the individual, acknowledges his true value, and teaches him devotion and responsibility to something beyond the here and now.” Later, as president, John Kennedy warned his fellow citizens of its “atheistic foe,” of communism’s “fanaticism and fury,” and of a “communist conspiracy” that “represents a final enslavement” of peoples. He further warned that “the enemy is the communist system itself---implacable, insatiable, unceasing in its drive for world domination … This is a struggle for supremacy between two conflicting ideologies: freedom under God versus ruthless, godless tyranny.”