All posts tagged: Communism

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Is Religion Evil?

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Is all religion evil? Some people think so. Recently, a large number of devout Muslims met in a wedding hall in Kabul Afghanistan to celebrate the birthday of their Prophet Muhammad. As they were celebrating their holy day, a suicide bomber detonated explosives among them, killing at least fifty and injuring many more. RELATED: Suicide bombing at Kabul religious gathering kills dozens I am not a Muslim, but I sympathize with the victims; they were innocently commemorating something that is sacred to them. The killer was a fellow Muslim, but many extreme Muslim terrorists have condemned the bombing. Some really dangerous people are appalled by what happened. They would never take it that far. Stories like this just boost the argument that religion is an evil force in the world and it should be removed. One famous quote, apparently by Karl Marx is “Religion is the opiate of the peoples” but that might have been a common proverb in his time. My impression of anyone who wants us to quit something, is that they want …

Matagalpa, Nicaragua Credit: Jono Hey/Flickr/Creative Commons

Antichrist Marxism rearing its head in Nicaragua?

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Things have taken a dark turn for Christians in Nicaragua being ruled by its Marxist president and former guerilla Daniel Ortega. Though a democracy, Ortega has recently declared Christians “enemies of the state.” With a population of six million people, Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America. About half the population is Catholic and another third consider themselves evangelical. There have been growing public protests against Ortega’s regime because of its rampant corruption, growing totalitarianism and gross mismanagement of the economy. The anti-government protestors are calling for Ortega to step down and call an early election. Ortega has taken to violence to oppose the protests and even set up a secret police force who wear masks or hoods to attack those opposing the regime.. Because of the growing crack down on the anti-government protests, the UN sent a commission to Nicaragua to monitor the situation. After the UN issued a report condemning Ortega for his violence, the president ordered the UN out of the country on September 1. Since April this year, about 300 …

Beijing, China on a smoggy day Credit: Jesse Varnier/Flickr/Creative Commons

Jesus Meets “The Great Firewall of China”

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Very recently, the government of China has restricted the sale of Christian Bibles online, to its own citizens. The Communist government of China wants to control rapidly growing religions, including Christianity and Islam, although the Islamic Koran is still available online. Religion was supposed to die in China, after the Communists came to power in 1949, but recently there are signs that Chinese people are becoming more religious, and the major religions are surging in popularity. Also, China is becoming a world leader in online marketing, or e-commerce. The growth in online sales is also surging in China, and this is a very recent trend. RELATED: China’s e-commerce explosion. What can we learn? In this mix, Bible sales have suddenly been restricted. RELATED: China bans Bible sales: New York Times Bibles are still available from church book stores, but not online. Strangely, China produces millions of Bibles for export, in many languages, including Chinese. There are no restrictions on this business. So, what does the restriction of Bible sales mean for Christians? Probably not much. …

Cuba Credit: Nick Kenrick/Flickr/Creative Commons

The struggle for religious freedom in Cuba

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Though still a communist nation, in 1992, the Cuba government reclassified itself as a secular nation under its constitution instead of an atheistic one. At the same time, it also partially lifted restrictions on religion and since then Christianity has seen remarkable growth in that country. The country’s current ruler, Raul Castro, the brother of Fidel who died in November 2016, actually attended a Jesuit school before the 1959 Communist revolution. He has been in charge in Cuba since 2011. Under his rule, the Catholic church has retained some favor with the government and in 2014, Cuba allowed a Catholic church in Santiago to construct a new building. It was the first church built in Cuba since the 1959 Communist revolution. The government has also declared Christmas and Good Friday as national holidays. In 2015, President Raul met with Pope Francis and after his meeting commented that he was seriously thinking of going back to church. When reporters laughed, Raul stated, “I’m serious.” But there still remains a tension between the government and Christians. In …

Moscow's Red Square Credit: viktor/Flickr

The 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution and the birthing of the first Communist state

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I remember as a university student walking the halls crowded with tables of various communist groups peddling their wares. We had the Leninists, Maoists, Marxists and Stalinists. Each with their table full of booklets, leaflets and books promoting their particular brand of the ‘glorious’ revolution. Of course, communism in its various forms was birthed in the heart of German Karl Marx (1818–1883) who along with Friedrich Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto that became the staple for modern communism. November 7, 2017, marked the 100th anniversary of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution that paved the way for the world’s first communist state. It was the first of many countries that would eventually fall to this evil philosophy. Ironically, the communist revolution that claimed to be the savior of the people resulted in the slaughter of over 100 million people world-wide. This was the estimate presented in book published by Harvard University Press, The Black Book of Communism. Published in 1997, its numbers are a bit outdated. The Black Book records there were 20 million killed during Stalin’s bloody …

Was Karl Marx and the rise of communism influenced by Satan?

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In his book, Marx and Satan, Richard Wurmbrand (1909-2001) looked at the writings of Karl Marx (1818-1883), the founder of communism. Unknown to many, Karl Marx started out as a Christian. Wurmbrand notes those Christian inclinations in some of Marx’s earliest writings such as The Union of the Faithful with Christ where the father of Communism wrote: “Through love of Christ we turn our hearts at the same time toward our brethren who are inwardly bound to us and for whom he gave himself in sacrifice.” Those words are in stark contrast to what Marx would later write as he developed his communistic manifesto, he told the world: “The idea of God is the keynote of a perverted civilization. It must be destroyed.” Though we are uncertain when it happened and why it happened, at some point Karl Marx abandoned his Christian faith.