Communism tried and found lethal

Sixty years ago this spring, Mao Zedong, chairman of the People’s Republic of China, issued the “May 16th Circular” starting what is known as “the cultural revolution” in China. Upon taking power in 1949, Mao began his “Great Leap Forward” in 1949, an aggressive economic and social program of communism. Historians estimate that 20–50 million Chinese died from starvation and overwork, with many more tortured, imprisoned, or killed.

The cultural revolution was Mao’s angry response to waning support and the resistance he felt among the “bourgeoisie,” the “secret capitalists” whom he felt were thwarting his aggressive communist regime. Mao mobilized an army of young men who hunted down and attacked doctors, teachers, lawyers, politicians. Millions were killed.

The revolution sought to destroy “the four olds”—old things, old ideas, old customs, and old habits. Ancient shrines and cultural artifacts were destroyed. Education was suspended around the country. Religious sites were destroyed. Many Christian pastors, already beleaguered after Christian missionaries were expelled when Mao took power, were forced at gunpoint to destroy their churches. Theologian Carl Henry, writing at the time for Christianity Today, lamented that “In city after city, Mao’s China has therefore eliminated ‘parasitic’ churches.”

Red Guards captured, tortured, and killed many religious leaders. The cultural revolution was so severe that in 1981, even an official CCP report acknowledged “mistakes.”

Sixty years later, the Chinese Communist Party still operates with the same totalitarian worldview, ruling it’s citizens by fear, force, and often brutal repression of speech and religion. This anniversary year should serve as a sober reminder that communism, far from the utopian vision its adherents promise, is a godless form of government that only ever leads to human suffering.

Remarkably, even as Mao’s forces rampaged through China and even as his economic programs plunged the nation into suffering and death, many on the left, including academics and activists, downplayed communism’s evils and spoke as though the United States and its communist foes were morally equivalent. But those who suffered under its thumb were not as confused. Richard Wurmbrand, a Lutheran minister and founder of Voice of the Martyrs, was tortured and imprisoned for 14 years for declaring “Christianity and communism are incompatible.”

Today, as the Cold War fades into a distant memory, a rising generation is once again tempted by these same old lies. A recent poll shows 34% of Americans between 18-25 are favorable to communism. Some politicians praise the central planning of communist nations like Cuba, with New York’s mayor dreaming socialist dreams.

The United States is thankfully still the freest and most prosperous nation in the history of the world. Yet we should be wary of the slow creep of ideologies that mirror Mao. Marxists in China targeted the nation’s pre-communist traditions, customs, and rituals. Today, some seek the same kind of erasure, cancelling flawed heroes, telling history in a way that makes the United States a villain in its own story, and viewing religion as a primitive obstacle to modernity.

Tradition is not perfect. To flourish in the present, nations must learn from the sins and mistakes of her past. God repeatedly called the nation of Israel, for instance, to remember her triumphs and her failures and repeat them to their children and grandchildren. Yet history and tradition bind a people together.

Ultimately, communism seeks to replace worship of God with worship of the state. Ronald Reagan was right when he declared:

Marx’s central insight when he was creating his political system was that religious belief would subvert his intentions. Under the Communist system, the ruling party would claim for itself the attributes which religious faith ascribes to God alone, and the state would be final arbiter of truth ... and morality. 

Ironically, today in a land where decades of communist rule has sought to eliminate or control Christianity, the Church, even while enduring severe persecution, is growing. Meeting underground, in secret, and at threat of death, God’s people gather, and those who yearn for hope beyond the hollow promises of the state find salvation in Christ. Billy Graham once said, “Either Communism must die or Christianity must die, because it's actually a battle between Christ and Anti-Christ.”

Those of us who read the back of our Bibles know which one of these will endure. And it’s not the party of Mao.