Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 December 1946 — Page 11
| restored to the church some of its
id \
' THURSDAY, DEC. 12,
ae 1946
Reds Tolerate Religion But Faithful Believers Live Uncomfortably
Anti-Religious Propaganda Remains Part
of School Curriculum
for Young Students
Eugene Lyons, for six years the United Press correspondent in
Soviet Russia, is an authority on its
history and system. The 10th of a
series of articles Mr. Lyons has written exclusively for the Scripps Howard newspapers is published today.
By EUGENE LYONS The position in Soviet Russia of the faithful believer—Christian, Mosley or Jew—is not unlike that of the village atheist in a pious American community. It is legal, but disreputable and highly uncomort-
able. situation.
Nothing that has happened in the last few year has altered this
During the war the Soviet government called off the more active
kind of persecution of religion and
former rights. The Kremlin needed to rally the support of believers, fd who are still the §§ majority, It¢§ needed also to improye its position # among the very A religious popula- {4 tions in neighbor- § # ing Slav countries ge which the Red armies were entering. But it was a change of policy, not a change of heart. Atheism is still the state religion in Stalin's domain. The new concessions to the church, granted under extreme pressure, can be— and will be—withdrawn as arbitrarfly as they were given just as soon as the Kremlin's interests make it desirable.
Religious Functions Barred
Antireligious propaganda remains & part of the school curriculum. Religious education for minors is still strictly forbidden, except in their own homes. The “godless” museums function as in the past. The present constitution, like the one it replaced, guarantees “freedom of religious worship and freedom of antireligious propaganda.” But it is the government itself that carries out the second half of the guaran“tee. A Communist caught attending church services or consorting with a priest will not long survive in! the ruling party. Charges of tak- | ing part in a religious function— such as marrying in church or baptizing your child—are normally
Eugene Lyons
enough to get you purged from the Communist ranks. Young people must give up all hope of rising on the economic or
| political ladder if they wish also to
practice their religion openly. One of the main purposes of the Comsomols (Communist youth organization) is to cure its members of “religious superstitions.”
Terror Used by State
The widespread notion abroad that religious worship was pro-
hibited in Russia after the revolu- | The Soviet!
tion is wholly untrue.
leaders would have been insane to attempt that, Except during high holidays, there have usually been enough houses of worship for the
true believers. This despite the fact
that in 24 years before Hitler's invasion the number of churches and priests declined by nearly 90 per cent, Instead the Soviet leaders resorted to propaganda, ridicule of believers and terror against church people. They sought to “save” the new generation by teaching atheism while forbidding religious instruc tion. They. closed most churches, stopped publication of Bibles and other religious literature. Priests, rabbis and mullahs were arrested wholesale. \Thousands of them still languish. in\prisons and concentration camps. The fact that large numbers of young men became priests and rabbis notwithstanding is one of the miracles of Russian life in those years.
Codes Don’t Jibe
The official Soviet attitude toward religion has had its seasons. Waves of ferocious persecution have alter=nated with periods of relative tolerance. Russia is now in such a period. How long it will last nobody knows. That it will be permanent is believed only by those who do
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obsessions of the top Soviet leadership. : The moral code of religion—its ideas of right and wrong--simply cannot be made to jibe with the
ship. When the prescribed belfefs and orders of the government run counter to elementary religious morals—as they nearly always do— the believer and his, church are automatically turned into political outlaws. The price which the Orthodok church in Russia today is paying for its limited new rights is absolute subservience to the state. Even under the czars. it had more independence. Should it ever make the slightest gesture in. opposition to the regime and its methods, it will be promptly suppressed. Life of Martyrdom None of the concessions made to the Orthodox church, .ingidentally,
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
not know the deeply antireliglous.
totalitarian code of the dictator-.
w ge o d
apply to religious bodies which the | ga» ng government cannot fully, dominate. Sin ers Plan The Roman Catholic church is a
case in point.
today your spiritual life would be one long martyrdom. You would
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