Religion and Centrally Planned Socialism

The following quote provides an excellent assessment of Communism (and historical insight still relevant for us throughout the world today), bringing to my mind the words of the apostle Peter who warns of men who are "springs without water and mists driven by a storm...For they mouth empty, boastful words...They promise (people) freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity--for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him" (2 Peter 2:17;18; 19).


     "Perhaps the greatest example of an organized political system of intolerance that both religious and secular societies have had to endure was that of centrally planned socialism, but this should not surprise us. It is consistent for a regime which believes it can plan the entire economy, which means to dictate the economic decisions of every citizen, to find little room in society for religious freedom. By attempting to own and control private property and to suppress religious and political expression and the freedom of association, the totalitarian rulers of Central and Eastern Europe in the late 20th century hoped to produce a society sanitized of any reference to God, or at least a God which transcended the pronouncements of the political ruler. 
     Certainly, many factors went into the astounding and rapid demise of Communism, but it would be an oversight to neglect the role of religion--Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish--in finally undermining the illegitimate authority the state had claimed for itself. It would also be an oversight to neglect the role of religion in providing a secure moral foundation for freedom so that liberty may be used and defended in moral terms. The contributions of religion to the development of the free society and the further implications for our future understanding of political liberty have only begun to be explored."
Robert A. Sirico, in his essay, The Moral Basis for Economic Liberty, in the book, Rediscovering Political Economy