主题：【原创】Religious Communism (上） -- 唵啊吽

Having some rituals to perform is usually another character of religion. A Christian told me that they are not idolatrous.

The rituals in the church connect Christians to God as saluting a national flag connects a person to his country: it is an action in the material world symbolizing the feeling of reverence towards the spiritual world. In fact, while daily feeling is easy to put on the face and is easy to tell, to express a feeling towards a Holy Spirit is too different from common experience that man has to symbolize some actions for this purpose. That is why humankind has developed at least as many rituals as many religions.

Both Christianity and Communism perform the most solemn ritual when one becomes holy: baptizing to become a Christian or taking the oath to join the party. The main theme of the process is to symbolize a new born spiritual being, one born from Christ the Father and another born from the Party the Mother. There are many songs to adore the Father Christ as well many songs to praise the Mother the Party. However, a more solemn song like "The International" is likely be sung at these occasions. To be born as new believer, one should die as unbeliever first, that is to repent or to self-criticise his bourgeois thoughts he has had. Baptizing or taking the oath is the core ritual where a prist or two old party members play the role to assure the spiritual baby is qualified and to introduce the him into the sacred institute -- the church or the party. Once the most solemn ritual has finished, the most emotional moment comes. The new believer will

receive memorial gifts for the crucial event and tears may drop on faces. From then on, he will be an entirely new man who is expected to grow from good to perfect, a never ending road to go.

An item in "Encyclopedia Americana" says:"Religion, the pattern of belief and practice through which men communicate with or hope to gain experience of that which lies behind the world of their ordinary experience. Typically it focuses on an Ultimate or Absolute, thought of by some believers as God."

Having God or not, Communism in China is sure something ultimate and absolute.

On one occasion, a professor asked me what was the main religion in china. I said it used to be Communism but now it was in a state of religion vacuum. One of my Chinese friend argued to me immediately: "Communism is not a religion."

I have heard nobody say Communism is a religion before.

Someone may think that Communism is a scientific belief because it originates from Marx's academic theory. We know

science is based on some beliefs such as there must be some natural rules behind every phenomena, but such belief is

different from religious one that it does not provide any morality norm.

Someone may argue that Communism is just a political myth which gives the Communist Party the legitimacy in power. However, many religions have provided legitimacy for political power in the history too. Communism may once be a political myth, but in China, if it has not developed into a religion yet, it has at least many religious functions in the society. Pure political myth does not need the believer to enhance their faith as frequent as weekly, and the faith in it seldom risks temptation from the evil side: it should be simply granted be true without the need of reasoning and testimony, like "We hold it true that man is born equal..."

Someone have said that Communism could not be a religion because it does not believe in God. In fact, non of the main

religions in China believe in God: Buddhism has no Supernatural Creator, Taoism believes in nature that has no personality, and Confucianism simply avoids any spiritual creature. They are religions because they are holy and provide practical methods to approach the holy. Unlike oriental religions, Communism has not only Ultimate Good but also Absolute Evil. It comes from the west and its structure resembles Christianity. A Christian once told me that Marx invented the Communism by plagiarizing the Bible. No matter if it is true or not, there must be some resemblance to

enable one to say so.

Someone may say that Communism is not religion because it does not worship. This is right if you define the worship as some mysterious rituals only. However, as an action or mean to praise the Ultimate Good, worship can take other forms. Paintings and sculptures are the arts of worship that we can see in every church. Singing songs is the most usual method to worship God in the church that I went to. In China, not only paintings, sculptures and songs but performance art, novels and movies are used to worship Communism. There are also many revolutionary sacred places as Shaoshan, Yanan and Jinggangshan that are reserved for the Communist believer to go on pilgrimages.

As long as man asks questions like "What is the meaning of a life?" "What is the destiny of our universe?" the religious

phenomena will not disappear, for man needs a spiritual guide. Because Communist have tried to sweep all the religions away from China since CPC was founded, they have either transformed Communism into a religion, or Communism have already played many religious functions.