Fifty years of Heritage (edition 10) Published April 8, 2011 By Eric M. White 910 AW/PA YOUNGSTOWN AIR RESERVE STATION, Ohio -- Each week in 2011, the 910th AW/PA office will republish a historic article or highlight from the archive along with a brief commentary. In the case of articles, we will publish exact copies of the originals, so any grammatical or typographical errors are intentional reproductions. Article10: Language in the war of words The Cold War was commonly called a war of words. Communist adversaries of the U.S. flooded the media with propaganda about the pitfalls of capitalism, the tyranny of the Western world and the forced slave labor of democracy. Likewise, the western world of democracy ensured its citizens knew the oppression and power-lust of communism. In a series of articles called An Alien Creed, published in several 1961 issues of Buckstone Carrier, 459th Troop Carrier Wing Chaplain Lt. Col. Robert A. Boettger compares communism to a religion complete with saints, devils, a creed and worship. This piece is republished as a historic look at psychological and philosophical strategies employed during the Cold War and is not intended to reflect modern opinions of the US Air Force or Department of Defense. Additional portions of this series will be published in subsequent weeks. From the September, 1960 Buckstone Carrier (Editor's note; This is the first in a series of articles on Communism Vs. Christian faith, writer by Chaplain Robert A Boettger, 459th TCW Chaplain. Very little is to be gained by merely pointing out the faults of others while ignoring our own. But ignorance of the basic beliefs of communism, an alien creed, can weaken our own faith and make us easy marks for the enemies of Western civilization. On successive months, Lt Col Boettger will discuss these topics: Religion, Man, Education, Morality, Government, Economics, Peace, the Future, as these things are understood by communists and by us.) I THE COMMUNIST RELIGION You are standing in a wooden enclosure. A nightmare trial has been held, complete with advance notice that you will be convicted and punished. You, the accused, have just been found guilty. You hear the dread words, "Guilty as charged of crimes against the state." You know there is no appeal. After the last ounce of propaganda has been squeezed out of your trial, you will be jailed for a long term. If you are lucky, you may be executed forthwith and escape the slower death of slave labor. Your crime? You were trying to teach people a way of love and mercy which you learned from the work of God. You reflect wryly that you must have been doing a pretty good job, for them to have bothered to try you at all. Such scenes are by no means fantastic. In East Germany you can be deprived of all chance for a higher education and a professional career, doomed to manual labor or peasant farming, if you dare have your children or yourself baptized or confirmed in the Christian faith. You must see to it that you and your family undergo the State rite of dedication, coming-of-age and marriage. What is this alien faith which is so bitterly opposed to the 3500 years of our own Jewish-Greek-Christian tradition? Why can't we just ignore it and get along peacefully in our half of the world? The communist doctrine is a faith--a religious faith which cannot tolerate a rival. It is a religion, complete with gods (the state and its goals), saints (Marx, Engels, Lenin), devils (Trotsky, Malenkov, those are not presently in favor), sin (meaning any deviation from the party line), a creed or formal doctrine (capitalism will fail of its own weakness, and other doctrines we shall be discussing), a hierarchy (the elite few who control the masses in the world's most efficient method yet devised for human subjugation and even an eschatology or view of the future, according to which mankind will one day be set free from capitalist enslavement by the communist order. And in addition, this alien creed calls upon its followers to sacrifice themselves, even to death, for the cause of the world revolution. There are forms of worship in this religion, shrines where heroes are entombed, sacred writings and holy traditions. But the thing to remember is that here is a complete, diabolical and utter distortion of the only legitimate object of human faith, namely God, who has revealed Himself as both Father and Savior. The church teaches a God who is bigger than the endless universe, has created, preserves and cares for all His people, yet who gives them, at the same time, the freedom to choose for or against Him. It is this freedom which is our glory and our despair as we respond to God's love. Communism must oppose this Christian faith. As we shall see later, its false teachings cannot stand the presence in the world of its Creator. This ruins all the communist ideas of man, morality and the future. We, on the other hand, must oppose communism with a firm faith, clear and reasoned as well as revealed. We ourselves must be willing to sacrifice for the freedom and the faith we have. And our faith and life is challenged today as never before. We are in danger. Communism is winning converts faster than we are. We won't get this firmness and clarity by closing our eyes and hoping the bad communists will go away. We will get it by actively practicing our own faith. Next month: The Alien Creed about Man.