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The specter of communism that was haunting Europe for century and a half has largely been exorcised, but not before it claimed untold millions in its bloodthirsty path. There are still a few countries in the world where it is strangling the lifeline out people, but unless something really drastic happens, these places are going through the last of it. Communism was an experiment in social engineering of staggering proportions and it resulted in a death toll that vastly surpasses all other tyrannical tragedies in the history of the world combined. Unfortunately, there are still many who cling to the illusion of intrinsic goodness of this abominable ideology, most of whom have cushy jobs in Western academia. The line that is all too casually tossed around is that what we had was not the "real communism", that there is a difference between Communism (which is bad) and Marxism (which is pure and unsoiled). This last line of argument really gets to me. To see what is wrong with it, imagine that someone told you similar things about the other great tyrannical ideology of the 20^th century, Nazism. Imagine that someone said that what Hitler did was not the "true" Nazism, that there is a difference between Nazism and, say, Fascism, or any other such inanity. You probably would not want to be associated with such a person, and rightfully so. Apologist for mass-murdering ideologies should not have a place in polite society. If you knew someone who lost family members in the Holocaust, you would be especially indignant and outraged at their behalf. I do have family members who had suffered all sorts of vicious persecution under the communism. Some of them have even paid with their lives. Needless to say, I take moral equivocation on behalf of Communism very seriously.

A big reason that Communism does not get the same level of coverage as Nazism is that former has never been defeated on a military field. It just simply imploded from within, under very strong pressures from the outside. After World War II the supreme commander of Allied troops in Europe general Dwight Eisenhower took ordinary Germans to the remnants of the concentration camps and showed them firsthand what had been done in their name. Those Germans took the lesson to heart, and to this day any mention of Nazism is severely restricted, and even in some instances criminalized in Germany. No such thing ever happened with Gulags. We are all that much poorer for not taking all the lessons to heart from that catastrophic mistake. We can only hope that in this case, we will not need to repeat the material.

Posted by Bojan Tunguz at 06:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There has been a spate of books published recently by particularly aggressive atheists, including Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennet, Christopher Hitchens and several other more or less infamous personages. One thing these authors have in common is their vague pretense to scientific underpinnings of their argument, and a shrill put downs of religion in all its forms. They are competing with each other in the vociferousness of their attacks, and seem to try to compensate the lack of even basic understanding of religious doctrines with intensity of their own beliefs. Yes, beliefs. The kind of rhetoric they employ can best, and perhaps only, be understood within the confines of religious discourse. It is no wonder then that during my last visit to Borders I found all these authors shelved in the "Religion and Beliefs" section of the store. One doesn't have to have an overly refined sense of irony to appreciate this.

Posted by Bojan Tunguz at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There has been a lot of commotion in the media surrounding the publication of Mother Theresa's letters in a single volume titled Come Be My Light. The letters have been collected and presented by Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk who has known Mother Theresa for twenty years, and is promoting her cause for sainthood. The reason that the book is creating so much controversy is because in her letters Mother Theresa expresses her anguish over the lack of feeling of God's presence in her life. This indeed is a shock to most people, since for so long she has been cast in the role of poster-person for deep faith and commitment to live the Gospel in the most extreme form. However, the content of this deep spiritual crisis has been in public for quite some time, albeit not in such a widely accessible form. An article from the May 2003 issue of "First Things" is a very thoughtful analysis.

There are several important lessons that can be learned from the spiritual anguish of this remarkable saint. Despite few loud and shrill voices that are trying to make the most of this "scandal", these letters are not a proof of Mother Theresa's "atheism". In all her years she never stopped praying to God to give her strength, and yes, to give her a sense of His presence. Faith, in Catholic understanding of that concept, requires consent of the mind to the truths that are not immediately apparent, and from all that I have read Mother Theresa gave that consent willingly and hardly ever wavered from it. There have been a few reported moments when she was not sure of God's existence, but this too is just a part and parcel of faith. All of us who express belief, be it in natural or supernatural, have our doubts, but that is exactly why faith is faith. If faith could be reduced to anything that is solid and tangible, it would cease to be faith and our own ability to go out of ourselves and open ourselves would be that much more diminished. The ultimate, supernatural faith, if it is possible to have, is not contingent on any of our sentiments. It is such faith that Mother Theresa cultivated throughout all those years of spiritual darkness, and it is that faith that sustained her work and gave us such a wonderful fruit of unconditional love and service to the poorest of the poor.

Another important lesson from these writings is what sort of new demands are placed on the rest of us who are far less holy than Mother Theresa was. We have been lulled in comfortable inaction of service, thinking that only saints of extra-human psychological abilities are capable of extra-human sacrifices. That someone like Mother Theresa would have the same doubts and uncertainties on a daily basis that all of us can relate to is both demanding and liberating. Demanding, because it puts pressure on us to get up and be Christ to the others, and liberating because we realize that all the tools required to achieve that vocation we have already been equipped with.

I have added Come Be My Light to my Amazon wish list. This book is bound to become a spiritual classic. I can't wait to read all that this remarkable woman had to say in her most intimate voice.

Posted by Bojan Tunguz at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)