Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR COMMUNISM I was pleased to see Zbigniew Brzezinski's review of Zevedei Barbu's notable book, Democracy and Dictatorship [NL, August 13]. In general, the review is excellent, but I...
...by confining itself to the immanent rational order prescribed by historical materialism, it cannot answer "the fundamental need for the sacred and transcendent in man...
...Hart or Mr...
...What Mr...
...Brzezinski misleads your readers by stating that Mr...
...The real issue is what the deepest impulse of Communism is and whether it is in actuality a displacement, emotionally and psychologically, of religious faith...
...Earlier, Bishop Fulton Sheen had attempted on a more modest scale a similar comparison (Communism and the Conscience of the West, Bobbs-Merrill, 1948...
...There is, of course, a problem of words and their meaning in the decision as to whether Communism is or is not a religion...
...Barbu, however, goes beyond Monnerot in emphasizing the messianism of Marx...
...Barbu is clear and eloquent...
...Lewis's information, I have no recollection of ever having met Mr...
...His leadership of the pro-segregation groups received the blessings of Senator James 0. Eastland of Mississippi after a meeting in Memphis last December between the two...
...Here twelve doctrines or key concepts from each system are set side by side...
...A further issue is the extent to which the religious analogy as an interpretative aid in understanding Communism is verified by the unconscious doctrinal parallelism between Communism and Christianity...
...Barr or Mr...
...Lowry rightly observes that the difference between us may be one of definition...
...Chandler before, and I don't think I ever have met Mr...
...For Mr...
...CORRECTION I was somewhat shocked by the article in your October 1 issue entitled "Right-Wing Forces Fight Adlai, Ike," by Walter K. Lewis...
...I call your attention to the third paragraph, which begins: "Among the delegates at Memphis was radio commentator and newspaper columnist Fulton Lewis Jr...
...Washington, D. C. Charles Wesley Lowry Chairman, Foundation for Religious Action Mr...
...This tragic fact proceeds from its restless "atheism" and its arrogant rejection of all universal ethical and human values...
...I made this abundantly clear in several press interviews which I had while I was there...
...Barbu lays to rest the misconception that "Communism is a religious manifestation...
...he even sees the concrete image of Him in the modern proletariat...
...This is too obvious to require discussion...
...An understanding of the concept of ideology and the role of ideology in certain contemporary systems, I submit, gives us a. better insight into the nature of movements like Communism than the misleading use of the term religion, which one then has to qualify by calling it "secular," "false," "idolatrous" and "atheistic...
...To argue that the motivation of some people in becoming Communists is similar to religious motivation is insufficient ground for the conclusion that Communism is a religion...
...Washington, D. C. Fulton Lewis Jr...
...My sole reason for being present in Memphis was to cover the conference from a reportorial standpoint and to report on it over my radio program, which I did, just as I had covered the Republican and Democratic National Conventions prior thereto...
...Lewis was photographed in the comThe New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...
...I should perhaps make it unequivocally clear that, although I regard Communism as in a sense the fourth Semitic religion, this latter-day faith is in my view effectually false and very nearly illimitably idolatrous...
...Similarly, the fact that Communism may draw its inspiration from a similar philosophical tradition (e.g., the Semitic) is also insufficient for classifying it as a religious manifestation...
...I certainly have had no active contact with them or their organizations, or with any "pro-segregation groups...
...Barr and Mr...
...John U. Barr and Mr...
...In general, the review is excellent, but I believe Mr...
...For Feuerbach, he says, "God is dead, and in that he is a representative of European nihilism...
...Mr...
...Brzezinski replies: Mr...
...I enclose a copy of the Memphis Press-Scimitar containing the photograph that was taken of me with Mr...
...Barr has admitted working closely with such luminaries of the far Right as Merwin K. Hart, head of the right-wing National Economic Council, and Edward A. Rumely...
...there may be parallels between the two...
...On the first issue, Mr...
...In my opinion, there is a considerable difference between religion and ideology, even though in certain respects (e.g., inspirational appeal, belief in-absolute righteousness, etc...
...If God is dead, he 'calls for new gods...
...However, the function of definition, I take it, is to increase our understanding through emphasis, among other things, of the distinctive nature of the matter being defined...
...Rumely at all...
...Lewis's correction is well taken...
...And one then has to forge or adapt other terms to convey what Communism and like species are...
...The concept of religion, historically and philosophically, implies a number of key doctrines and principles of faith which are completely and significantly absent in Communist thought and appeal...
...I was not a delegate to this conference, either literally or figuratively—officially or unofficially...
...Walter K. Lewis's original manuscript had the commentator "among those attending the conference"—hastily condensed here to "among the delegates...
...But this means that the concept of ?"secular religion" is dismissed as a contradiction in terms...
...As a radio reporter and commentator, I had Mr...
...The title identifies the other two individuals and continues: "and Fulton Lewis Jr., newspaper and radio columnist who interviewed them...
...It seems to me that our understanding of Communism, or other similar systems of thought, is not furthered by classifying them as religions...
...Marx's mind cannot be kept for long in ?negative position...
...Chandler on the air with me Thursday night, as I had the various officials of the Democratic and Republican Conventions on with me in Chicago and San Francisco, to give their version of what the conference planned to do, and the following night I had Clarence Manion on giving a preview of his so-called keynote address (which was not to be delivered until three hours later...
...Barbu's statements, interpreted far too hastily by your reviewer, boil down to is that Communism is not truly religious...
...Robert G. Chandler, temporary chairman of the conference...
...On the second issue, Communism as a doctrinal system, I can only trespass further upon your space to refer to a tabular comparison of the systems of Christianity and Communism worked out in my book Communism and Christ (Morehouse-Gorham, 1952...
...He adopts from Jules Monnerot, probably the most brilliant analyst of Communism yet to arise, the formula le deplacement du sacre and interprets this as denoting "the repression of religious experience . . . under the impact of science, on one hand, and the displacement of the repressed religious need into various fields of secular activity on the other.'' Monnerot, be it noted, calls Communism "the 20th-century 'Islam'" and speaks of "the Communist secular religion...
...It is easily possible to define religion in such a way as to eliminate Communism as a candidate...
...pany of John U. Barr, New Orleans industrialist (see The New Leader, January 16, 1956), who in December 1955 was elected chairman and coordinator of all groups throughout the country which are fighting the Supreme Court's school decision...
Vol. 39 • October 1956 • No. 43
