Doctrine and Secular quotes on Civil and Socialist religion

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CHH
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Doctrine and Secular quotes on Civil and Socialist religion

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On another group I was asked:

In political or secular matters, credibility for one's positions is established if others share your point of view. ... If you suddenly find yourself as the "lone man in the wilderness," propounding certain views, maybe you should seek second and third witnesses for your assertions. Is there anyone else who shares your point of view?

Since he asked I gave him the SHORT answer:

A few:

“I certainly came to the conclusion many years ago that Marxism is a religion, contrary to Marx’s contention that he was being ‘scientific’. This was related to my own upbringing in a fundamentalist, Pentecostal church and I came to see a huge number of similarities and parallels between the two belief systems.” Dr. Wallace Mills of St Mary’s University in a personal letter to Christopher Hansen 2007.

RESEARCH REPORT: Communism as Religion
Sam McFarland, Department of Psychology, Western Kentucky University
Scales developed to measure communist fundamentalism and the intrinsic, extrinsic, and quest orientations within communism were administered in 1989 to 137 Communist Party members in the Soviet Union along with measures of discriminatory attitudes toward Jews, Christians, women, homosexual persons, and political dissidents. Communist fundamentalism and the extrinsic orientation predicted discriminatory attitudes, and quest predicted lower attitudes of discrimination. The comparability of these results with those found in studies of American Christians suggest the existence of universal, genotypic relations of fundamentalism and the religious orientations with prejudice, of which both American Christianity and communism are but two phenotypic examples. Specific genotypic laws are proposed. As a young student for the ministry in an earlier incarnation, my peers and I sometimes discussed whether communism is a religion. Some said no, because communism is atheistic, and some said yes, because communism is a comprehensive belief system and provides a framework for total devotion. In the end, of course, we agreed that the answer depended upon how one defined religion.

Socialism vs. Religion: for many socialists, Marx is a prophet and communism is the gospel. Literally. by Joshua Muravchik
One of its most important founders was Moses Hess, the "father of German socialism" who played the major part in winning Marx and Engels to communism. ... The God he found was communism. In a catechism composed in 1846, he contrasted his new faith with the one that prevailed in the society around him. Christians invest their hopes "in the image of ... heavenly joy.... We, on the other hand, want this heaven on earth."... Most socialists would deny that their creed is religious in character. Did not Marx say that religion is an opiate? But many have given evidence of the religious quality of their belief. Michael Harrington, a fallen-away product of Jesuit education who became the preeminent American socialist of his generation, wrote: "I consider myself to be--in Max Weber's phrase--`religiously musical' even though I do not believe in God.... I am ... a `religious nature without religion,' a pious man of deep faith, but not in the supernatural." Harrington's disciple, sociologist Norman Birnbaum, is even more blunt. "Socialism in all its forms was itself a religion of redemption," he writes. Despite the prophetic character of its claims, Marxism managed to establish the idea that it was somehow "scientific." The term "science" had only fully come into vogue in the early 1800s, and science was discovering explanations every day for things that had long seemed inexplicable. By applying the terminology of science to human behavior, Marx and Engels developed a powerful cachet. Part of the power of Marxism was thus its ability to feed religious hungers while flattering followers that they were wiser than those who gave themselves over to unearthly faiths.


[T]he government may not establish an official or civic religion as a means of avoiding the establishment of a religion with more specific creeds. Lee v. Weisman 505 U.S. 577, *578, (1992)
[1] We agree of course that the State may not establish a ‘religion of secularism’ in the sense of affirmatively opposing or showing hostility to religion, thus ‘preferring those who believe in no religion over those who do believe.’ School Dist. of Abington Tp., Pa. v. Schempp 374 U.S. 203, *225 (1963)

[1] HOST Krista Tippett. "From American Public Media, this is Speaking of Faith, public radio's conversation about belief, meaning, ethics, and ideas. Today, author Anchee Min on 'Surviving the Religion of Mao.'"
Author Anchee Min “I was taught to write ‘I love you, Chairman Mao’ before I was taught to write my own name. I never thought I belonged to myself. It was never ‘I love you, Papa’ and ‘I love you, Mama’; it's always ‘I love you, Communist Party of China,’ ‘I love you, Chairman Mao.’ What I want to say is that Mao was our religion.” Surviving the Religion of Mao TRANSCRIPT Broadcast Date: August 10, 2006

Communism and Modern Religion (I), Gene Frost, Fort Smith, Arkansas
What is Communism? It is many things, but simply stated we may say that it is a philosophy of life expressed in a dedication to the advancement of socialism with an ultimate goal of achieving world domination. Karl Marx, who combined the philosophies of Hegel and Feuerbach, developed the philosophical basis. G. F. W. Hegel developed what he called a "scientific analysis" of history and attempted to establish "laws" to guide human action. Marx took this analysis a step further: the laws of human action are to be employed to change the world. He said, "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it."6 To Marx, revolution became the philosopher's work.
However, this philosophy did not take a socialistic objective or motivation until influenced by Ludwig Feuerbach. Feuerbach taught that God was the creation of man's mind. He was a materialist, i. e. a philosopher who admitted only the existence of matter; he denied the reality of spirit. Combining materialism and a program of action according to a so-called analysis of history, Marx developed a philosophy designed to produce a will to change, a will to destroy the old and to rebuild a new social order.
Since all changes are material changes, Marx reasoned, there must be material laws of change. With Engels, his son-in-law, Marx defined the laws of change. Every change, we are told, results from a struggle of opposites. And this struggle is constant, i. e. all matter is in a state of constant flux, change and revolution. With every state there is an antithesis, and as this antithesis overthrows the thesis (or status quo) it produces yet another social order (a synthesis). It is the work of the philosopher, Marx taught, to assist this change. ...
There are many fallacies in this godless and idolatrous philosophy, not discussed in this lesson. Rather we will content ourselves in this study to understand the conflict, define the enemy, point out the goals, and then to observe the modus operandi by which communism hopes to subvert the United States, in particular through the very means it desires to destroy, namely religion.
In fact, the communists of Soviet Russia no longer insist upon the overthrow of religion and our government by revolution; they believe that we will swallow the communist philosophy bit by bit until we become socialistic in fact. Then these United States will become the United Socialist States of America, and God will be destroyed from the land. This is the design . . . and it is meeting with success. We need to awaken to the threat and turn back this atheistic conspiracy.
1--V. I. Lenin, Introduction to Religion, quoted page 153, The Communist Conspiracy, Part I, Section A, U. S. Government Printing Office.2--Ibid., page 157.3--Ibid., page 153.4--E. Yaroslavsky, Religion in the U. S. S. R., quoted page 284, The Communist Conspiracy, Part I, Section B, U. S. Government Printing Office.5--Ibid., page 279.6--Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, quoted page 123, Facts on Communism, Vol. 1, U. S. Government Printing Office.7--History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), Short Course, quoted page 132, Facts on Communism, Vol. I, U. S. Government Printing Office.8--V. I. Lenin, op. cit., page 163.9--Ibid.10--V. I. Lenin, Tasks of the Youth League, quoted page 68, Soviet World Outlook, U. S. Government Printing Office. Truth Magazine VIII: 5, pp. 19-20, 24 February 1964Next Article: Communism and Modern Religion (II)

“The real goal of the Earth Charter is that it will in fact become like the Ten Commandments.” — Maurice Strong Interview: Maurice Strong on a "People's Earth Charter" (transcript of interview conducted March 5, 1998)
Mr. Strong is Chairman of the Earth Council and Co-Chair of the Earth Charter Commission.
Jews and the American Civic Religion. The Two Religions of American Jews
Those Jews fool themselves who think that America is innocently secular. Secularity is not neutral but creates a vacuum that is filled with the belief system of civic religion. "Most American Jews have two religions the way some men have one wife and one mistress, or some women one husband and one lover. It is a condition that can be managed, learned from, even enjoyed, sometimes for long periods. But it can never be brought to true conciliation." Richard John Neuhaus, "The Two Religions of American Jews," First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life Aug.-Sept. 1997

No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion. Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect ‘a wall of separation between church and State. Torcaso v. Watkins 367 U.S. 488, *493 (1961)

Civil Religion and the Establishment Clause, Yehudah Mirsky, The Yale Law Journal, Vol. 95, No. 6 (May, 1986), pp. 1237-1257 noted in Lee v. Weisman 505 U.S. 577, *589, (1992)

There seems to be developing a new civil religion. The civil religion I refer to is a secular religion. It has no moral absolutes. It is non-denominational. It is non-theistic. It is politically focused. It is antagonistic to religion. It rejects the historic religious traditions of this nation. It feels strange. If this trend continues, non-belief will be more honored than belief. While all beliefs must be protected, are atheism, agnosticism, cynicism, and moral relativism to be more safeguarded and valued than Christianity, Judaism, and the tenets of Islam which hold that there is a Supreme Being and that mortals are accountable to him? If so, this would, in my opinion, place this nation in great moral jeopardy.” Speaker Martin R. Stephens, Utah House of Representatives, Opening Session Remarks, January 19, 2004 As quoted from Elder James E. Faust

Of the Quorum of the Twelve From a talk given 19 July 1992 at a Pioneer Day fireside at Weber State University, Ogden, Utah.

“In our church - if I may be permitted to use for a moment an expression which I so detest: Church and State are my two bêtes noires - in our church, as in the Protestant church, we have a chief, an invisible Christ, science; and, like the Protestants, more logical even than the Protestants, we will suffer neither pope, nor council, nor conclaves of infallible cardinals, nor bishops, nor even priests. Our Christ differs from the Protestant and Christian Christ in this - that the latter is a personal being, ours impersonal; the Christian Christ, already completed in an eternal past, presents himself as a perfect being, while the completion and perfection of our Christ, science, are ever in the future: which is equivalent to saying that they will never be realized. Therefore, in recognizing absolute science as the only absolute authority, we in no way compromise our liberty.” God and the State by Mikhail Bakunin 1814-1876, New York: Mother Earth Publishing Association, 1916

Civil Religion in America by Robert N. Bellah, Reprinted by permission of Dædalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, from the issue entitled, "Religion in America," Winter 1967, Vol. 96, No. 1, pp. 1-21.

THE SOCIAL CONTRACT by Jean Jacques Rousseau, Chap IV Sec. 8 Civil Religion, 1762
[1] DISCOURSES Upon The First Ten (Books) of Titus Livy By NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI 1517

#2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. # 5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. #10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc. Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, English translation by Samuel Moore, 1888

First. The National Reich's Church of Germany(hereinafter called the N.R. and represented in this telegram by the symbol "N”. Categorically claims the exclusive right and the exclusive power to control all churches within the borders of the Reich; it declares these to be national churches Complete file at: Church of National Reich, PRESIDENT'S Franklin D. Roosevelt’s SECRETARY'S FILE: Diplomatic Correspondence w/ Germany: 1940-41http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/psf/box31/a296p05.html

JUSTICE STEVENS Groups Socialism with Religion “The forum at Westside is considerably different from that which existed at the University of Missouri. In
Widmar, we held that the university had created "a generally open forum," id., at 269. Over 100 officially recognized student groups routinely participated in that forum. Id., at 265. They included groups whose activities not only were unrelated to any specific courses, but also were of a kind that a state university could not properly sponsor or endorse. Thus, for example, they included such political organizations as the Young Socialist Alliance, the Women's Union, and the Young Democrats. See id., at 274; Chess v. Widmar, 635 F.2d 1310, 1312, and n. 1 (CA8 1980). The university permitted use of its facilities for speakers advocating transcendental meditation and humanism. Since the university had allowed such organizations and speakers the use of campus facilities, we concluded that the university could not discriminate against a religious group on the basis of the content of its speech. The forum established by the state university accommodated participating groups that were "noncurriculum related" not only because they did not mirror the school's classroom instruction, but also because they advocated [496 U.S. 226, 274] controversial positions that a state university's obligation of neutrality prevented it from endorsing.” WESTSIDE COMMUNITY BD. OF ED. v. MERGENS, 496 U.S. 226 (1990) JUSTICE STEVENS, dissenting.

“Conventional analyses of secularization typically deal with revealed religions and the increasing disenchantment of their adherents with revealed religious doctrines under conditions of rapid industrialization and urbanization. Very little research, however, has dealt with the rise and decline of religiousity or the impact of secularization in social systems organized around a civil religion. This investigation approaches the development of the Bolshevik party in the Soviet Union as an example of a civil religious movement to test Weber's notions of enchantment and disenchantment against the experience of devoted party activists in order to see how increasing industrialization has influenced the civil religion of Marxism-Leninism and the behavior of individual followers of Marxism-Leninism. Hence, this analysis seeks to discover whether or not a dynamic of secularization, perhaps akin to the growing disenchantment among devoted Protestants from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries as discussed by Weber, might be found in post-revolutionary communist societies, like the present day USSR. If such a dynamic of secularization does exist, then the question of civil religious revivalism or revitalization movements, will be addressed to consider how and where such revivalistic movements might develop within post-revolutionary, secularized communist systems.” An Abstract of Timothy W. Luke, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA, Civil religion and secularization: Ideological revitalization in post-revolutionary communist systems, Journal Sociological Forum Publisher, Springer Netherlands, ISSN 0884-8971 (Print) 1573-7861 (Online) Issue, Volume 2, Number 1 / December, 1987 http://www.springerlink.com/content/tm457026412w1388/
“Religion is one of the forms of spiritual oppression which everywhere weighs down heavily upon the masses of the people, over burdened by their perpetual work for others, by want and isolation. Impotence of the exploited classes in their struggle against the exploiters just as inevitably gives rise to the belief in a better life after death as impotence of the savage in his battle with nature gives rise to belief in gods, devils, miracles, and the like. Those who toil and live in want all their lives are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while here on earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward. But those who live by the labour of others are taught by religion to practise charity while on earth, thus offering them a very cheap way of justifying their entire existence as exploiters and selling them at a moderate price tickets to well-being in heaven. Religion is opium for the people. Religion is a sort of spiritual booze, in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, their demand for a life more or less worthy of man.” V. I. Lenin, Socialism and Religion, Published: Novaya Zhizn, No. 28, December 3, 1905. Signed: N. Lenin. Published according to the text in Novaya Zhizn.

World Tibet Network News , Tuesday, November 19, 1996
China says religion must bow to socialism in Tibet (Reuter) By Benjamin Kang Lim
BEIJING, Nov 13 (Reuter) - China has vowed to curb the influence of Buddhism in Tibet, saying religion would have to bow to socialism.

Is Socialism the United Order
Elder Marion G. Romney of the Council of the Twelve Apostles
What I am going to give you now is a statement I have prepared in answer to the question, "Is Socialism the United Order?" Some of you may have already heard it. This is the first time I have ever attempted to give a talk a second time. My excuse is that the Brethren have asked me to give this talk here tonight.
I suppose the best way to start a comparison of socialism and the United Order is with a definition of the terms. Webster defines socialism as:
Socialism defined
"A political and economic theory of social organization based on collective or governmental ownership and democratic management of the essential means for the production and distribution of goods; also, a policy or practice based on this theory." (Webster's New International Dictionary, 2nd ed. unabridged, 1951.)
George Bernard Shaw, the noted Fabian Socialist, said that:
"Socialism, reduced to its simplest legal and practical expression, means the complete discarding of the institution of private property by transforming it into public property and the division of the resultant income equally and indiscriminately among the entire population." (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1946 ed., Vol. 20, p. 895.)
George Douglas Howard Cole, M.A. noted author and university reader in economics at Oxford, who treats socialism for the Encyclopedia Britannica, says that because of the shifting sense in which the word has been used, "a short and comprehensive definition is impossible. We can only say," he concludes, "that Socialism is essentially a doctrine and a movement aiming at the collective organization of the community in the interest of the mass of the people by means of the common ownership and collective control of the means of production and exchange." (Ibid., p. 888.)
Socialism arose "out of the economic division in society." During the nineteenth century its growth was accelerated as a protest against "the appalling conditions prevailing in the workshops and factories and the unchristian spirit of the spreading industrial system."
Communism, starting point
The "Communist Manifesto" drafted by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels for the Communist League in 1848 is generally regarded as the starting point of modern socialism. (Ibid., p. 890.)

LDS Doctrine on Socialism/Communism as religions



The following are selected quotes concerning the doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints concerning socialism, communism, fascism, nazism, etc. are religions and that they are the counterfeit doctrine of Satan established for the purpose of conflicting with Christ’s work.



Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, A NEW WITNESS FOR THE ARTICLES OF FAITH, p. 626, 1985



One of the surest and most certain signs of the times is the near-omnipresence of false prophets. "There shall also arise . . . false prophets," saith the holy word. (JS-M 1:22.) It is now almost as though every fool or near-fool, and every person filled with self-conceit and a desire to be in the spotlight of adulation, fancies himself a prophet of religion or politics, or what have you. On every hand there are those who suppose they know how to save society, to save nations, to save souls. They preach all sorts of gospels—a social gospel; a racial gospel; a gospel of freedom or communism, of socialism or free enterprise, of military preparedness or reliance upon the wispy promises of foreign foes; a gospel of salvation by grace alone, or of this or that doctrine.



David O. McKay, Conference Report, April 9, 1966, pp. 109-10. Italics in original.



The position of this Church on the subject of Communism has never changed. We consider it the greatest satanical threat to peace, prosperity, and the spread of God's work among men that exists on the face of the earth. . . .

The entire concept and philosophy of Communism is diametrically opposed to everything for which the Church stands—belief in Deity, belief in the dignity and eternal nature of man, and the application of the gospel to efforts for peace in the world. Communism is militantly atheistic and is committed to the destruction of faith wherever it may be found.

The Russian Commissar of Education wrote: "We must hate Christians and Christianity. Even the best of them must be considered our worst enemies. Christian love is an obstacle to the development of the revolution. Down with love for one's neighbor. What we want is hate. Only then shall we conquer the universe."

On the other hand, the gospel teaches the existence of God as our Eternal and Heavenly Father and declares: ". . . him only shalt thou serve." (Matt. 4:10.)

Communism debases the individual and makes him the enslaved tool of the state, to which he must look for sustenance and religion. Communism destroys man's God-given free agency…


Ezra Taft Benson, 1960, So Shall Ye Reap



May I assure you that communism is not merely an economic program. It is a total philosophy of life, atheistic and utterly opposed to all we hold dear as a great Christian nation. While we might effectively bridle or destroy every so-called communist within our own borders, we shall not vanquish this political virus, and its common forerunner, state socialism, so long as people are determined to achieve security through state-imposed materialistic schemes rather than through righteous living and wholesome activity as free men.



Elder Bruce R. McConkie 1985, A NEW WITNESS FOR THE ARTICLES OF FAITH, p. 54



Sad as it may be, almost the entire history of mankind is an account of false worship, false gods, and all the ills that attend such a course. Communism is in reality a form of religion in which men deny the God of the Bible and worship the gods of compulsion and power and war. Philosophy in all its forms and varieties is a way of worship. It is an attempt by reason and without revelation to explain existence, ethical principles in general, and the whence, why, and whither of life.



Boyd K. Packer, 1975, Teach Ye Diligently, p. 225



Atheism, like theism, is divided into many sects: communism, agnosticism, skepticism, humanism, pragmatism, and others.

The atheist proclaims his own dishonesty in accepting pay to teach psychology, sociology, history, or English, while he is indeed preaching his atheistic religious philosophy to his students.



Apostle David O. McKay, Gospel Ideals, p. 304-305



Communist leaders have steadily insisted that communism cannot live in just one country. Just as we fought to make 'the world safe for democracy,' so they are fighting to make the world safe for communism. They are fighting this fight today. Every country must become communistic, according to their idea. So they have sent out missionaries…

Do not let advocates of communism mislead you in their attempt to denounce capitalism. Fundamental in the belief and promulgation of communism is the denial of the existence of God and the desire to substitute for the belief confidence in the state. The state is not an organization to suppress people. The state should have no power but that which the people give it; and when the state becomes a director, a controller of the individual, it becomes despotism; and human nature has fought that since man was created; and man will continue to fight that false ideal.

Individual freedom is innate in the human soul. God has given us our free agency, and next to life itself that is our greatest gift from heaven, and you red-blooded men and women know that is true because of your own love of liberty.



Stephen L Richards, 1955


There are some who may regard the acknowledgment of spiritual power as a stigma of weakness, that the humility which is essential to the acceptance of divine power is incompatible with strength of manhood and self-determination. That was in large measure the doctrine of Hitler and is today the philosophy of communism. I hope there are not many who adopt such a philosophy of life.
Now I know that there are many in Christian nations and many in prominent places who accede to this taboo on religion in the consideration of national and world affairs. They seem to think that they can fight aggressive, atheistic communism without uttering a word in defense and exposition of divinely given concepts, and without even seeking divine aid in the preservation of divine principles for the race.


Ezra Taft Benson, This Nation Shall Endure, p. 93



As Americans, we have marched a long way down the soul-destroying road of socialism, atheism, and totalitarianism. It is the price we pay when we turn away from God and turn to government to do everything for us. It is the formula by which nations become enslaved by their own leaders.

As England's Lord Acton so succinctly put it, "Power tends to corrupt—and absolute power corrupts absolutely." (Essays on Freedom and Power, p. 364.)

Increasing numbers of Americans are subscribing to the myth that you can get something for nothing—as long as the government is footing the bill. In fact, they believe it is the duty of government to take care of them, from the womb to the tomb.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. Everything we get from the government, we pay for in debilitating taxes. Everything the government gives to the people, it must first take from the people. This is something few Americans appear to understand.



(This Nation Shall Endure, p. 94)



But as those affluent years slipped by, voices were heard in the land, singing the siren songs of socialism. And many Americans tapped their feet to the beat of the music. Politicians were already promising something for nothing, that elusive free lunch. Thus, gradually the people let the government infringe upon their precious freedoms, and the preliminary signs of decay began to appear in our young republic.



Marion G. Romney, 1977, Learning For The Eternities, p. 2



Three of the major devices that have led men to reject the truth concerning God have been and still are (1) apostate Christianity, (2) the theory of biological evolution, and (3) communism.


President Ezra Taft Benson Of the Council of the Twelve, A Witness and a Warning

But whenever the God of heaven reveals His gospel to mankind, Satan, the archenemy to Christ, introduces a counterfeit.



Communism introduced into the world a substitute for true religion. It is a counterfeit of the gospel plan. The false prophets of Communism predict a utopian society. This, they proclaim, will only be brought about as capitalism and free enterprise are overthrown, private property abolished, the family as a social unit eliminated, all classes abolished, all governments overthrown, and a communal ownership of property in a classless, stateless society established.



President Marion G. Romney, in the First Presidency Message in the September 1979 Ensign, wrote: “Communism is Satan’s counterfeit for the gospel plan, and … it is an avowed enemy of the God of the land. Communism is the greatest anti-Christ power in the world today and therefore the greatest menace not only to our peace but to our preservation as a free people. By the extent to which we tolerate it, accommodate ourselves to it, permit ourselves to be encircled by its tentacles and drawn to it, to that extent we forfeit the protection of the God of this land” (p. 5).





President Marion G. Romney Second Counselor in the First Presidency, The Message: America’s Promise, New Era, Mar 1980, p.4

In distinguishing communism from the United Order, President David O. McKay said that communism is Satan’s counterfeit for the gospel plan, and that it is an avowed enemy of the God of the land. Communism is the greatest anti-Christ power in the world today and therefore the greatest menace not only to our peace but to our preservation as a free people. By the extent to which we tolerate it, accommodate ourselves to it, permit ourselves to be encircled by its tentacles and drawn to it, to that extent we forfeit the protection of the God of this land.

Relying on that part of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” the United States Supreme Court has ruled against Bible reading and prayer in public schools. By so doing, said President David O. McKay, “the Supreme Court of the United States severs the connecting cord between the public schools of the United States and the source of divine intelligence, the Creator himself,” who, of course, is the God of this land (Relief Society Magazine, Dec. 1962, p. 878).

Now, of course, we all believe and wholeheartedly support the separation of church and state; but we must not let this wresting of the First Amendment, nor communism, nor atheism, nor any other anti-Christ influence, weaken our conviction that Jesus Christ is the God of this land nor diminish our determination to obey his laws.

First Presidency Message, in Conference Report, Apr. 1942

False Political Isms

We again warn our people in America of the constantly increasing threat against our inspired Constitution and our free institutions set up under it. The same political tenets and philosophies that have brought war and terror in other parts of the world are at work amongst us in America. The proponents thereof are seeking to undermine our own form of government and to set up instead one of the forms of dictatorships now flourishing in other lands. These revolutionists are using a technique that is as old as the human race—a fervid but false solicitude for the unfortunate over whom they thus gain mastery and then enslave them.

They suit their approaches to the particular group they seek to deceive. Among the Latter-day Saints they speak of their philosophy and their plans under it as an ushering in of the United Order. Communism and all other similar isms bear no relationship whatever to the United Order. They are merely the clumsy counterfeits which Satan always devises of the gospel plan. Communism debases the individual and makes him the enslaved tool of the state to whom he must look for sustenance and religion; the United Order exalts the individual, leaves him his property, "according to his family, according to his circumstances and his wants and needs," (D&C 51:3) and provides a system by which he helps care for his less fortunate brethren; the United Order leaves every man free to choose his own religion as his conscience directs. Communism destroys man's God-given free agency; the United Order glorifies it. Latter-day Saints can not be true to their faith and lend aid, encouragement, or sympathy to any of these false philosophies. They will prove snares to their feet.



Apostle Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Point of Safe Return,” Ensign, May 2007, 99–101



The gift of the Atonement of Jesus Christ provides us at all times and at all places with the blessings of repentance and forgiveness.

Satan tries to counterfeit the work of God, and by doing this he may deceive many. To make us lose hope, feel miserable like himself, and believe that we are beyond forgiveness, Satan might even misuse words from the scriptures that emphasize the justice of God, in order to imply that there is no mercy.



James E. Faust, Second Counselor in the First Presidency , “The Forces That Will Save Us,” Liahona, Jan 2007, 2–7



Some of Satan’s most appealing lines are “Everyone does it”; “If it doesn’t hurt anybody else, it’s all right”; “If you feel all right about it, it’s OK”; or “It’s the ‘in’ thing to do.” These subtle entreaties make Satan the great imitator, the master deceiver, the arch counterfeiter, and the great forger.
Agency—Our Alternative: Our agency, given us through the plan of our Father, is the great alternative to Satan’s plan of force. With this sublime gift, we can grow, improve, progress, and seek perfection. Without agency, none of us could grow and develop by learning from our mistakes and errors and those of others.


Elder James E. Faust of the Quorum of the Twelve, “A New Civil Religion,” Ensign, Oct. 1992, 69A New Civil Religion,



There seems to be developing a new civil religion. The civil religion I refer to is a secular religion. It has no moral absolutes. It is nondenominational. It is nontheistic. It is politically focused. It is antagonistic to religion. It rejects the historic religious traditions of America. It feels strange. If this trend continues, nonbelief will be more honored than belief. While all beliefs must be protected, are atheism, agnosticism, cynicism, and moral relativism to be more safeguarded and valued than Christianity, Judaism, and the tenets of Islam, which hold that there is a Supreme Being and that mortals are accountable to him? If so, this would, in my opinion, place America in great moral jeopardy.
For those who believe in God, this new civil religion fosters some of the same concerns as the state religions that prompted our forefathers to escape to the New World. Nonbelief is becoming more sponsored in the body politic than belief.
Apostle Dallin H. Oaks, “Our Strengths Can Become Our Downfall,” Liahona, May 1995, 10
Elder Marion G. Romney of the Quorum of the Twelve taught: “Latter-day Saints know that there is a God. With like certainty, they know that Satan lives, that he is a powerful personage of spirit, the archenemy of God, of man, and of righteousness” (Ensign, June 1971, page 35). President Joseph F. Smith described one of Satan’s methods: “Satan is a skillful imitator, and as genuine gospel truth is given the world in ever-increasing abundance, so he spreads the counterfeit coin of false doctrine” (ibid., page 36).
Elder Bernard P. Brockbank Assistant to the Council of the Twelve, “Hearken Unto the Voice of God,” Ensign, May 1974, 11
President Harold B. Lee said, “Today you are witnessing the fulfillment [of a prophecy concerning Satan’s dominion]. Today is the day when the devil has power over his own dominion.” (Harold B. Lee, Decisions for Successful Living, Deseret Book Co., 1973, p. 221.) That is a prophetic statement from a prophet of God. He also said, “[Satan] is the master of deceit, adulteration and counterfeit.
Elder Marion G. Romney, Of the Council of the Twelve, “Satan—The Great Deceiver,” Ensign, Jun 1971, 35
We know that there is available to each of us the gift of the Holy Ghost—the power of revelation which embraces the gift of discernment by which we may unerringly detect the devil and the counterfeits he is so successfully foisting upon this gullible generation. Our course is clear and certain. It is to strictly obey the commandments of the Lord, as they are recorded in the scriptures and as they are being given by the living prophets.

Socialism

President Ezra Taft Benson President of the Council of the Twelve “Jesus Christ—Gifts and Expectations,” New Era, May 1975, 16

If we really did our homework and approached the Book of Mormon doctrinally, we could expose the errors and find the truths to combat many of the current false theories and philosophies of men, including socialism, humanism, organic evolution, and others.



Ezra Taft Benson, This Nation Shall Endure



We have accepted a frightening degree of socialism in our country. The question is, how much? The amount of freedom depends upon the amount of federal control and spending. A good measurement is to determine the amount, or percentage, of income of the people that is taken over and spent by the state.



President Marion G. Romney SOCIALISM AND THE UNITED ORDER COMPARED



The "communist manifesto" drafted by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, for the Communist League . . . in . . . 1848 is generally regarded as the starting point of modern socialism (Ibid.).



No, socialism is not the United Order. Distinguishing between these two systems need be no more difficult than solving the problem of the farmer who could not tell one of his horses from the other. They weighed the same, pulled the same load, ran at the same speed; from the looks of their teeth they were the same age. Finally, as a last resort, he measured them, and, sure enough, the white horse was six hands higher than the black one.



Now, not forgetting our duty to eschew socialism and support the just and holy principles of the Constitution, as directed by the Lord, I shall conclude these remarks with a few comments concerning what we should do about the United Order.



David O. McKay



Under Communism you lose your liberties immediately and perhaps your life. Under Socialism, you lose your liberties a little more slowly but just as surely.



The Prophet John Taylor on Socialism.

I attended a second lecture on Socialism, by Mr. Finch; and after he got through, I made a few remarks, I said I did not believe the doctrine.

Communism

Message from the First Presidency, Improvement Era, August 1936, p. 488.

Latter-day Saints cannot be true to their faith and lend aid, encouragement, or sympathy to false ideologies such as socialism and communism. The official Church position on communism remains unchanged since it was first promulgated in 1936: "We call upon all Church members completely to eschew Communism. The safety of our divinely inspired Constitutional government and the welfare of our Church imperatively demand that Communism shall have no place in America."



David O. McKay, Selections from the Discourses of David O. McKay (Gospel Ideals, p. 273)



THE NEW BARBARISM. "During the first half of the twentieth century we have traveled far into the soul-destroying land of socialism and made strange alliances through which we have become involved in almost continuous hot and cold wars over the whole of the earth. In this retreat from freedom the voices of protesting citizens have been drowned by raucous shouts of intolerance and abuse from those who led the retreat and their millions of gullible youth, who are marching merrily to their doom, carrying banners on which are emblazoned such intriguing and misapplied labels as social justice, equality, reform, patriotism, social welfare.



Ezra Taft Benson



We must keep the people informed that collectivism, another word for socialism, is a part of the communist strategy. Communism is essentially socialism.



David O. McKay, General Conference, October 1951, pp. 10-11.



At heart communism is atheistic, and fascism is equally antagonistic to freedom and to other Christian principles—even denying the divinity of Jesus Christ and the existence of God.


David O. McKay

A ruthless dialectical battle is being waged against the Christian way of life, against political liberty, against individual freedom, and it is being waged in the name of Freedom. Black becomes White; Tyranny becomes Freedom; The Forced Labor Camp stands for Liberty; The Slave State is represented as Democracy. This is the deadly challenge of Communism.

President Ezra Taft Benson, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles “Prepare Yourself for the Great Day of the Lord,” New Era, May 1982, 44

The Church is prospering and growing. Yet in undiminished fury, and with an anxiety that his time is short—and it is—Satan, that great adversary to all men, is attempting to destroy all we hold dear. The greatest system of slavery ever devised by the forces of evil—communism—has been imposed on over one billion of the earth’s inhabitants. We constantly hear or read of wars and rumors of wars. Atheism, agnosticism, immorality, and dishonesty are flaunted in our society.



President Gordon B. Hinckley, Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, p. 232 – 233



Religion and the free exercise thereof, the right to worship God according to one's own conscience—how precious and treasured a boon it is. How necessary that it be safeguarded. Established religion becomes the guardian of the conscience of the people, the teacher of moral values, the defender of belief in the Almighty, the bridge between God and man. No people will live for long in freedom without it. The history of communism, whose founding father declared religion to be the opiate of the people, speaks with harshness and suffering concerning this basic matter.

Congress shall not abridge "the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

The history of tyrants is a history of the muzzling of free expression and the denial of assembly. ("The Bill of Rights," Bonneville International Corporation "Gathering of Eagles," June 20, 1991.)


President Gordon B. Hinckley, Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, p. 407



The voices I hear are persuasive, seductive, fascinating, and confusing. Speaking across the earth, they are part of a mighty battle that is being waged for the minds of men. They are aimed at persuasion in political philosophy. There are voices of democracy competing with voices of communism, and each is winning converts according to the discernment and the judgment of listeners. The stakes are high, the weapons are sophisticated, the methods are clever.



Elder John A. Widtsoe, Evidences And Reconciliations



Modern communism, fascism, nazism, socialism, and other related systems, are all the same in essential theory. They oppose religion, except as they themselves claim to be revelations, and they reject Christian morality. They prohibit free speech and action; eliminate private ownership and initiative; hold without exception the state above the individual; regiment the people; allow the strong to dominate the weak; they take government out of the hands of the governed, and place it in the hands of a self-appointed, selfish, self-styled, super-group, and they culminate in dictatorships. The free agent has no place in their systems. Their claim that they believe in human equality, as shown by their tyrannical behavior, is false. Force and terrorism are their weapons. All that makes for human security and happiness is destroyed.


Elder Neal A. Maxwell, 1972



[A]s a nation we ignored the warning signals which preceded the great depression; we were also unready to face the onrushing realities of Fascism and Communism—whereas today many are blind to the dangers of self-oppression, the chains we put on ourselves, which is the real tyranny of our time.


Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, THE MILLENNIAL MESSIAH,1982, 66



We hear the voice of one false Christ, echoing from the camps of communism, expounding the devil-devised declaration that religion is the opiate of the people. We hear another such voice when races alien to Israel acclaim that the one God has no need for a Son to mediate between himself and fallen man.

Next Moroni turns the key so that all who have ears to hear can understand what the secret combination is and can identify those who build it up. "For it cometh to pass," he says, "that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries." This is a worldwide conspiracy. It is now entrenched in many nations, and it seeks dominion over all nations. It is Godless, atheistic, and operates by compulsion. It is communism. "And it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; even that same liar who beguiled our first parents, yea, even that same liar who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning; who hath hardened the hearts of men that they have murdered the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning."



Ezra Taft Benson, This Nation Shall Endure



We must keep the people informed that collectivism, another word for socialism, is a part of the communist strategy. Communism is essentially socialism.



David O. McKay, Selections from the Discourses of David O. McKay, 1952



Latter-day Saints should have nothing to do with secret combinations and groups antagonistic to the constitutional law of the land, which the Lord "suffered to be established," and which "should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh according to just and holy principles."

Fundamental in the belief and promulgation of communism is the denial of the existence of God and the desire to substitute for the belief confidence in the state. The state is not an organization to suppress people. The state should have no power but that which the people give it; and when the state becomes a director, a controller of the individual, it becomes despotism; and human nature has fought that since man was created; and man will continue to fight that false ideal.

Individual freedom is innate in the human soul. God has given us our free agency, and next to life itself that is our greatest gift from heaven, and you red-blooded men and women know that is true because of your own love of liberty.

Fascism



Joseph Fielding Smith,1936, The Progress of Man, p. 397





On the one side the direction which is to make an end of all nations, is through communism; on the other side it is being reached through Fascism and Nazism. While these two forces are apparently arrayed against each other, nevertheless the goal to be reached by them eventually is the same.



Ezra Taft Benson, 1960, So Shall Ye Reap



Can communism, socialism, fascism, the so-called welfare state, or any other coercive system provide these priceless blessings which flow to us as a part of our American way of life? The common denominator of all these systems is the curtailment of individual liberty.



David O. McKay, General Conference, October 1951, pp. 10-11.



At heart communism is atheistic, and fascism is equally antagonistic to freedom and to other Christian principles—even denying the divinity of Jesus Christ and the existence of God.




Social Security


Ezra Taft Benson, This Nation Shall Endure



We have accepted a frightening degree of socialism in our country. The question is, how much? The amount of freedom depends upon the amount of federal control and spending. A good measurement is to determine the amount, or percentage, of income of the people that is taken over and spent by the state. In Russia, the individual works almost wholly for the state, leaving little for his own welfare. Scandinavia takes about 65 to 70 percent of the income of the people, England some 60 percent. The United States is now approximately 44 percent.

The chief weapon used by the federal government to achieve this equality is through so-called transfer payments. This is a term that simply means that the federal government collects from one income group and transfers payments to another by the tax system. These payments are made in the form of Social Security benefits, housing subsidies, Medicaid, food stamps, to name a few.

Today, total cost of such programs exceeds $150 billion dollars. That represents about 42 percent of the total of all government federal spending, or about one dollar out of every seven dollars of personal income. (See U.S. News and World Report, August 4, 1975, pp. 32-33.)

Our present Social Security program has been going in the hole at the rate of $12 billion a year. Recognizing that the present program will be insolvent by 1985, President Carter has now recommended that Social Security be funded out of the general tax funds. Charges were made in the last election campaign that the Social Security program was going bankrupt. These charges were denied. Now the truth is out. The President's recommendation must be regarded as an admission of the failure of the present system and as a calculated policy to take this country into full-scale socialism.

Our major danger is that we are currently—and have been for forty years—transferring responsibility from the individual, local, and state governments to the federal government.



President Heber J. Grant, Gerenal Conference October, 1936: 13.



“We have on, at the present time, a great political campaign (1936), and I want to say to the Saints that I hope they will not allow their political affiliations, their regard for political affairs, to cause feelings of ill-will towards one another. I have had some of the most insulting letters that ever came to me, condemning me for not being in favor of the Townsend Plan (Social Security), and that I must be ignorant of the plan. I am not ignorant of the plan. I have not read every word of it, but I have asked one of my secretaries to read every word of the plan and to give me the important points, and to my mind it is in direct opposition to everything I have quoted from Brigham Young and from the revelations of the Lord. The idea of allowing every man and woman who has reached the age of sixty years and wishes to retire from working to get two hundred dollars a month from the government! There is nothing truer than Brigham Young's statement, that we should give nothing to people, unless they are not able to work, without requiring them to do something for it.



Ezra Taft Benson 1960, So Shall Ye Reap



May I assure you that communism is not merely an economic program. It is a total philosophy of life, atheistic and utterly opposed to all we hold dear as a great Christian nation. While we might effectively bridle or destroy every so-called communist within our own borders, we shall not vanquish this political virus, and its common forerunner, state socialism, so long as people are determined to achieve security through state-imposed materialistic schemes rather than through righteous living and wholesome activity as free men.




Ezra Taft Benson, CR, April 1962, p.105-106



To protect this base we must protect the soul of America -- we must return to a love and respect for the basic spiritual concepts upon which this nation has been established. We must study the Constitution and the writings of the founding fathers.

Yes, we must protect the Lord's base of operations by moving away from unsound economic policies which encourage creeping socialism and its companion, insidious, atheistic communism. If we are to protect this important base we must as a nation live within our means, balance our budgets, and pay our debts. We must establish sound monetary policies and take needed steps to compete in world markets.



Secular Religion





Elder Boyd K. Packer, Official Report of the 164th Annual General Conference April, 1994



Satan's attacks on the family: The ultimate purpose of the adversary, who has "great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time," (1) is to disrupt, disturb, and destroy the home and the family. Like a ship without a rudder, without a compass, we drift from the family values which have anchored us in the past. Now we are caught in a current so strong that unless we correct our course, civilization as we know it will surely be wrecked to pieces. Moral values are being neglected and prayer expelled from public schools on the pretext that moral teaching belongs to religion. At the same time, atheism, the secular religion, is admitted to class, and our youngsters are proselyted to a conduct without morality.



Bruce R McConkie, A NEW WITNESS FOR THE ARTICLES OF FAITH A NEW WITNESS FOR THE ARTICLES OF FAITH Deseret Book Company 1985,



Thus, as we have seen, civil control of religion is Lucifer's way of enforcing an enduring state of apostasy and of darkness upon all who are subject to such control. Thus also, as long as government controls our way of worship, Lucifer is in control, and we have no hope except to await the day when the chains will be broken and the bondage will cease.



10. Atheism, a Fatal Belief—"During the Reign of Terror, the French were declared by the National Assembly to be a nation of atheists; but a brief experience convinced them that a nation of atheists could not long exist. Robespierre then 'proclaimed in the convention, that belief in the existence of God was necessary to those principles of virtue and morality upon which the republic was founded; and on the 7th of May [1794], the national representatives, who had so lately prostrated themselves before the Goddess of Reason, voted by acclamation that the French people acknowledged the existence of the Supreme Being, and the immortality of the soul.'"—Students' France, 27, 6.



Elder Boyd K Packer, TEACH YE DILIGENTLY,1975



The Religion of Atheism

Some years ago in the United States a plaintiff prospered in her grievance concerning the saying of prayers in public schools. The practice was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. That decision was partial to one ideology, for the effect, regardless of the intent, was to offer great encouragement to those who would erase from our society every trace of reference to the Almighty.

There is a crying need for the identification of atheism for what it is, and that is, a religion albeit a negative one. Atheism is a religious expression; it is one extreme end of religious philosophy.

One group of so-called believers in God teach in substance that He is man-made. That is, they admit, with tongues in cheeks, that there is a God. But, in the same breath, they explain that God is always a product of the human mind. Early peoples, they say, worshipped tribal Gods, of stock and stone. As the people developed, their conceptions changed, until, in time, God became a Being of spirit. This simply means that God is made by man, and in the image of man; instead of man being made in the image of God. Such colossal self-sufficiency is of the impudent order of King Canute defying the tides of the ocean. The notion of a man-made God is a variation of atheism.

Quotes on Civil Religion/Socialism

Are Socialism/Communism Religions?

Selected quotes from a variety of scholarly sources with emphasis added
Compiled by the Researchers at the First Christian Fellowship of Eternal Sovereignty



Fredrick Engles the co-author of the Ten Commandments of Communism, the Manifesto, in Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, stated:



“The history of early Christianity has notable points of resemblance with the modern working-class movement. Like the latter, Christianity was originally a movement of oppressed people: it first appeared as the religion of slaves and emancipated slaves, of poor people deprived of all rights, of peoples subjugated or dispersed by Rome. Both Christianity and the workers' socialism preach forthcoming salvation from bondage and misery; Christianity places this salvation in a life beyond, after death, in heaven; socialism places it (salvation) in this world, in a transformation of society." (On the History of Early Christianity, in Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Progress Publishers, Moscow 1975, Volume 27).


The Avalon Project at Yale Law School

Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression Volume IV,Document No. 1708-PS

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1708-PS, Edited by: Dr. Robert Ley

Published by: Central Publishing House of the N.S.D.A.P.Franz Eher, successor Munich
The program of the NSDAP
The program is the political foundation of the NSDAP and accordingly the primary political law of the State. It has been made brief and clear intentionally.
All legal precepts must be applied in the spirit of the party program.
Since the taking over of control, the Fuehrer has succeeded in the realization of essential portions of the Party program from the fundamentals to the detail.
The Party Program of the NSDAP was proclaimed on the 24 February 1920 by Adolf Hitler at the first large Party gathering in Munich and since that day has remained unaltered. Within the national socialist philosophy is summarized in 25 points:
24. We demand freedom of religion for all religious denominations within the state so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the Germanic race. The Party as such advocates the standpoint of a positive Christianity without binding itself confessionally to any one denomination. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit within and around us, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our nation can only succeed from within on the framework: common utility precedes individual utility.


National Socialism, Christian Reconstruction and the Future of Germany

by Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher, Calvinism Today 1991/Symbiotica 1991



“Anyone who chooses to became a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (Jam 4:4)…



But it is important to observe that Romans 1 has a much wider scope than what we normally call 'religion'. Rom 1 does not just apply to the well organized religions like Islam or Hinduism. It also establishes the religious nature of all philosophies, world views and beliefs. Christians have lost many battles because they have not realized that a rival religion does not need to be organised like one of the so called 'world religions'. If a system purported to be something totally different to a religion, then Christians all too often just accepted this instead of exposing the religious character of this system.



Take for example the already quoted statement of Jesus: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Mt 6:24; Lk 12:34). How can Jesus put serving mammon on the same level as serving God? Is mammon not just a way of living while serving God is a religion? No! Rousas Rushdoony wrote in his Institutes of Biblical Law: “in any culture the source of the law is the god of society”. Mammon seems to be an atheistic system, but it is still a rival religion. Mammon is just a part of creation and if you serve and give thanks to money or wealth as the highest value of life, you have exchanged the creator for the creature.



In Marxism creation is called 'matter'. It is one of the fundamental beliefs of Marx that matter is eternal. It brings forth man and history, which is the agent of matter. Marxism is a giant rival religion prophesying the course of history till its end, giving a purpose to the life of those who work for this future, and being the foundation of a perverted ethics. Several people have started therefore to collect the testimonies of Marxists concerning how they became Marxists. They sound like evangelical testimonies and prove beyond doubt that Marxists have changed their religion, not just their attitude towards economy or politics.



Lenin exercised godlike power over life and death. He saw himself as, “the master of the knowledge of the evolution of social species.” It was Lenin who “decided who should disappear by virtue of having been condemned to the dustbin of history.” From the moment Lenin made the “scientific” decision that the bourgeoisie represented a stage of humanity that evolution had surpassed, “its liquidation as a class and the liquidation of the individuals who actually or supposedly belonged to it could be justified.” (''The Black Book of Communism,'' p. 752).

From Civil to Political Religion: The Intersection of Culture, Religion and Politics

It is in the modern world that these extreme cases of sacred authoritarianism or political messianism are to be found.

Totalitarian or monopolistic types of civil religion, with strong nationalistic secular ideologies (as in the case of France, the former Soviet Union, Communist China, Cuba, or Turkey under Ataturk), have been identified as “secular nationalism” (Coleman, 1969: 72; Stevens, 1975). Coleman suggests that secular nationalism is an “alternative” civil religion with a “worldview and symbol system” which either replaces or competes with the traditional religious system of organized churches (1969: p. 72).

France, for example, after the French Revolution, sought to establish not only a secular but an aggressive anti-Christian civil religion (Bellah, 1967: 13). To replace Christianity with the Cult of the Supreme Being, and to institutionalize the veneration of the goddess of reason, Christian churches were transformed into Temples of Reason, and those churches that did not, or could not, become centres for the new cult were plundered, shut down, or used by revolutionaries and government officials for political activity (De Azevedo, 1979: 11–12; Markoff and Regan, 1982: 335–45; Willaime, 1993: 573). The calendar was also rearranged — the birth of the Republic came to replace the birth of Christ, Sunday was abolished, and priests were urged to resign. In short, the whole nation was forced to secularize. The glorification of the nation, patriotism, and civic virtue were imposed and maintained through a civil religion and a series of rituals and ceremonies devoted to encourage worship of France and the goddess Reason (Giner, 1993: 31). Despite the eventual overthrow of the secular revolutionaries, the French state ever since has occupied a central role in the definition, production, and self-understanding of the French identity. Marcela Cristi, From Civil to Political Religion: The Intersection of Culture, Religion and Politics (Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2001) p. 144

Bellah also envisions the emergence of some type of world civil religion. The global community, according to him, needs “a global concord” for its survival — a global order of civility and justice. Accordingly, Bellah alludes to a “trans-national sovereignty.” Yet this would require the “incorporation of vital international symbolism into our civil religion, or, perhaps … it would result in American civil religion becoming simply one part of a new civil religion of the world” (1967: 18). He believes that American civil religion with its “tradition of openness, tolerance and ethical commitment” might play an important role in the development of “a world civil religion that would transcend and include it” (Bellah, 1980a:

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