By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net)

Congratulations on this fine piece. I see one stitch with which I can help: praying for our enemies. The only way we can do that is to separate the person from the evil, and pray for their redemption from being used and deceived by “the evil one”. It’s easier to say than do, especially when many define themselves by the evil! At this the secularist, paralyzed by “tolerance”, will leap to his feet and shriek ‘Judge not!” But we have not judged: Scripture has made that judgment thousands of years ago.

The bottom line work of the devil in Western Society is the pride of self-reliance. For the secularist Progressive who doesn’t believe in or need God, there is no hereafter. There is no accountability, nor a reason to work for the coming of his Kingdom. Salvation can only be to build heaven on earth here and now with tax and spend government programs.

In perusing the angry left wing “Progressive” sites, they not only want an end to the war in Iraq, but an end to the market economy. What’s going on now in Venezuela is a harbinger of what the “Progressives” (Marxists) would like to do here:

* Seize control of the government by lawful (or any other) means and then change the rules so they will retain temporal power forever

* Confiscate the wealth of the rich and redistribute it to the poor! (Since justice IS equality, this is the “system based on justice” about which the Jay Benishes continually preach to our children!) For America, this would mean confiscation of all retirement funds and investment portfolios everywhere.

* Nationalize all economic activity and introduce a Soviet style centrally planned economy.

* Make Government Officials, their academic advisors, and other Political Hacks the elite of society as they were in the Soviet Union, (complete with big offices, confiscated homes, drivers and mistresses).

* Start building gulags for the “social deviationists” who stand in the way of “social progress”.

If you are a college student, an academic, or a George Soros who sees himself as one of the planners, such a scheme seems plausible, possible and desirable. The failure of Marxist (Progressive) economic systems world wide in Eastern Europe and in China (where they have reintroduced market incentives) does not register. The shortcomings are always attributed to administrators and their mal-administration, not to the theory. Herein lies the fatal flaw.

Secularists do not understand that “Satan is the Prince of this World”. The obstacle to their Utopia is always a person or persons out there standing in the way. Exterminate these persons and THEN we can realize the dream! For the Progressives, It’s “The Trotskyites”, the “Kulaks”, the “Social deviationists”, “The Rich”, or currently “George Bush”!

Though the Marxists (Progressives) have killed millions over almost 100 years, Utopia still remains (and will always remain) just out of reach. The gulags will fill, the bodies will accumulate, and poverty will blossom throughout the land. But rather than realizing a heaven on earth, the Progressives will discover they have introduced a Satanic here and now living hell.