'We Want God'
When John Paul II went to Poland, communism didn't have a prayer.
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PEGGY NOONAN

Thursday, April 7, 2005 12:01 a.m.

Everyone has spoken this past week of John Paul II's role in the defeat of Soviet communism and the liberation of Eastern Europe. We don't know everything, or even a lot, about the quiet diplomatic moves--what happened in private, what kind of communications the pope had with the other great lions of the 1980s, Reagan and Thatcher. And others, including Bill Casey, the tough old fox of the CIA, and Lech Walesa of Solidarity.

But I think I know the moment Soviet communism began its fall. It happened in public. Anyone could see it. It was one of the great spiritual moments of the 20th century, maybe the greatest.

It was the first week in June 1979. Europe was split in two between east and west, the democracies and the communist bloc--police states controlled by the Soviet Union and run by local communist parties and secret police.

John Paul was a new pope, raised to the papacy just eight months before. The day after he became pope he made it clear he would like to return as pope to his native Poland to see his people.

The communists who ran the Polish regime faced a quandary. If they didn't allow the new Pope to return to his homeland, they would look defensive and frightened, as if they feared that he had more power than they. To rebuff him would seem an admission of their weakness. On the other hand, if they let him return, the people might rise up against the government, which might in turn trigger an invasion by the Soviet Union.

The Polish government decided that it would be too great an embarrassment to refuse the pope. So they invited him, gambling that John Paul--whom they knew when he was cardinal of Krakow, who they were sure would not want his presence to inspire bloodshed--would be prudent. They wagered that he would understand he was fortunate to be given permission to come, and understand what he owed the government in turn was deportment that would not threaten the reigning reality. They announced the pope would be welcome to come home on a "religious pilgrimage."

John Paul quickly accepted the invitation. He went to Poland.

And from the day he arrived, the boundaries of the world began to shift.

Two months before the pope's arrival, the Polish communist apparatus took steps to restrain the enthusiasm of the people. They sent a secret directive to schoolteachers explaining how they should understand and explain the pope's visit. "The pope is our enemy," it said. "Due to his uncommon skills and great sense of humor he is dangerous, because he charms everyone, especially journalists. Besides, he goes for cheap gestures in his relations with the crowd, for instance, puts on a highlander's hat, shakes all hands, kisses children. . . . It is modeled on American presidential campaigns. . .  Because of the activation of the Church in Poland our activities designed to atheize the youth not only cannot diminish but must intensely develop. . .  In this respect all means are allowed and we cannot afford any sentiments."

The government also issued instructions to Polish media to censor and limit the pope's comments and appearances.

On June 2, 1979, the pope arrived in Poland. What followed will never be forgotten by those who witnessed it.

He knelt and kissed the ground, the dull gray tarmac of the airport outside Warsaw. The silent churches of Poland at that moment began to ring their bells. The pope traveled by motorcade from the airport to the Old City of Warsaw.

The government had feared hundreds or thousands or even tens of thousands would line the streets and highways.

By the end of the day, with the people lining the streets and highways plus the people massed outside Warsaw and then inside it--all of them cheering and throwing flowers and applauding and singing--more than a million had come.

In Victory Square in the Old City the pope gave a mass. Communist officials watched from the windows of nearby hotels. The pope gave what papal biographer George Weigel called the greatest sermon of John Paul's life.

Why, the pope asked, had God lifted a Pole to the papacy? Perhaps it was because of how Poland had suffered for centuries, and through the 20th century had become "the land of a particularly responsible witness" to God. The people of Poland, he suggested, had been chosen for a great role, to understand, humbly but surely, that they were the repository of a special "witness of His cross and His resurrection." He asked then if the people of Poland accepted the obligations of such a role in history.

The crowd responded with thunder.

"We want God!" they shouted, together. "We want God!"

What a moment in modern history: We want God. From the mouths of modern men and women living in a modern atheistic dictatorship.

The pope was speaking on the Vigil of Pentecost, that moment in the New Testament when the Holy Spirit came down to Christ's apostles, who had been hiding in fear after his crucifixion, filling them with courage and joy. John Paul picked up this theme. What was the greatest of the works of God? Man. Who redeemed man? Christ. Therefore, he declared, "Christ cannot be kept out of the history of man in any part of the globe, at any longitude or latitude. . . . The exclusion of Christ from the history of man is an act against man! Without Christ it is impossible to understand the history of Poland." Those who oppose Christ, he said, still live within the Christian context of history.

Christ, the pope declared, was not only the past of Poland--he was "the future . . . our Polish future."

The massed crowd thundered its response. "We want God!" it roared.

That is what the communist apparatchiks watching the mass from the hotels that rimmed Victory Square heard. Perhaps at this point they understood that they had made a strategic mistake. Perhaps as John Paul spoke they heard the sound careen off the hard buildings that ringed the square; perhaps the echo sounded like a wall falling.

The pope had not directly challenged the government. He had not called for an uprising. He had not told the people of Catholic Poland to push back against their atheist masters. He simply stated the obvious. In Mr. Weigel's words: "Poland was not a communist country; Poland was a Catholic nation saddled with a communist state."

The next day, June 3, 1979, John Paul stood outside the cathedral in Gniezno, a small city with a population of 50,000 or so. Again there was an outdoor mass, and again he said an amazing thing.

He did not speak of what governments want, nor directly of what a growing freedom movement wants, nor of what the struggling Polish worker's union, Solidarity, wanted.

He spokeof what God wants.

"Does not Christ want, does not the Holy Spirit demand, that the pope, himself a Pole, the pope, himself a Slav, here and now should bring out into the open the spiritual unity of Christian Europe . . .?" Yes, he said, Christ wants that. "The Holy Spirit demands that it be said aloud, here, now. . . . Your countryman comes to you, the pope, so as to speak before the whole Church, Europe and the world. . . . He comes to cry out with a mighty cry."

What John Paul was saying was remarkable. He was telling Poland: See the reality around you differently. See your situation in a new way. Do not see the division of Europe; see the wholeness that exists and that not even communism can take away. Rhetorically his approach was not to declare or assert but merely, again, to point out the obvious: We are Christians, we are here, we are united, no matter what the communists and their map-makers say.

It was startling. It was as if he were talking about a way of seeing the secret order of the world.

That day at the cathedral the communist authorities could not stop the applause. They could not stop everyone who applauded and cheered. There weren't enough jail cells.

But it was in the Blonie Field, in Krakow--the Blonia Krakowskie, the fields just beyond the city--that the great transcendent moment of the pope's trip took place. It was the moment when, for those looking back, the new world opened. It was the moment, some said later, that Soviet communism's fall became inevitable.

It was a week into the trip, June 10, 1979. It was a sunny day. The pope was to hold a public mass. The communist government had not allowed it to be publicized, but Poles had spread the word.

Government officials braced themselves, because now they knew a lot of people might come, as they had to John Paul's first mass. But that was a week before. Since then, maybe people had seen enough of him. Maybe they were tiring of his message. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

But something happened in the Blonie field.

They started coming early, and by the time the mass began it was the biggest gathering of humanity in the entire history of Poland. Two million or three million people came, no one is sure, maybe more. For a mass.

And it was there, at the end of his trip, in the Blonie field, that John Paul took on communism directly, by focusing on communism's attempt to kill the religious heritage of a country that had for a thousand years believed in Christ.

This is what he said:

Is it possible to dismiss Christ and everything which he brought into the annals of the human being? Of course it is possible. The human being is free. The human being can say to God, "No." The human being can say to Christ, "No." But the critical question is: Should he? And in the name of what "should" he? With what argument, what reasoning, what value held by the will or the heart does one bring oneself, one's loved ones, one's countrymen and nation to reject, to say "no" to Him with whom we have all lived for one thousand years? He who formed the basis of our identity and has Himself remained its basis ever since. . . .

As a bishop does in the sacrament of Confirmation so do I today extend my hands in that apostolic gesture over all who are gathered here today, my compatriots. And so I speak for Christ himself: "Receive the Holy Spirit!"

I speak too for St. Paul: "Do not quench the Spirit!"

I speak again for St. Paul: "Do not grieve the Spirit of God!"

You must be strong, my brothers and sisters! You must be strong with the strength that faith gives! You must be strong with the strength of faith! You must be faithful! You need this strength today more than any other period of our history. . . .

You must be strong with love, which is stronger than death. . . . When we are strong with the Spirit of God, we are also strong with the faith of man. . . . There is therefore no need to fear. . . . So . . . I beg you: Never lose your trust, do not be defeated, do not be discouraged. . . . Always seek spiritual power from Him from whom countless generations of our fathers and mothers have found it. Never detach yourselves from Him. Never lose your spiritual freedom.

They went home from that field a changed country. After that mass they would never be the same.

What John Paul did in the Blonie field was both a departure from his original comments in Poland and an extension of them.

In his first comments he said: God sees one unity of Europe, he does not see East and West divided by a gash in the soil.

In this way he "divided the dividers" from God's view of history.

But in the Blonie field he extended his message. He called down the Holy Spirit--as the Vicar of Christ and successor to Peter, he called down God--to fill the people of Poland, to "confirm" their place in history and their ancient choice of Christ, to confirm as it were that their history was real and right and unchangeable--even unchangeable by communists.

So it was a redeclaration of the Polish spirit, which is a free spirit. And those who were there went home a different people, a people who saw themselves differently, not as victims of history but as strugglers for Christ.

Another crucial thing happened, after the mass was over. Everyone who was there went home and turned on the news that night to see the pictures of the incredible crowd and the incredible pope. But state-controlled TV did not show the crowds. They did a brief report that showed a shot of the pope standing and speaking for a second or two. State television did not acknowledge or admit what a phenomenon John Paul's visit was, or what it had unleashed.

The people who had been at the mass could compare the reality they had witnessed with their own eyes with the propaganda their media reported. They could see the discrepancy. This left the people of Poland able to say at once and together, definitively, with no room for argument: It's all lies. Everything this government says is a lie. Everything it is is a lie.

Whatever legitimacy the government could pretend to, it began to lose. One by one the people of Poland said to themselves, or for themselves within themselves: It is over.

And when 10 million Poles said that to themselves, it was over in Poland. And when it was over in Poland, it was over in Eastern Europe. And when it was over in Eastern Europe, it was over in the Soviet Union. And when it was over in the Soviet Union, well, it was over.

All of this was summed up by a Polish publisher and intellectual named Jerzy Turowicz, who had known Karol Wojtyla when they were young men together, and who had gone on to be a supporter of Solidarity and member of Poland's first postcommunist government. Mr. Turowicz, remembering the Blonie field and the Pope's visit, told Ray Flynn, at the time U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, "Historians say World War II ended in 1945. Maybe in the rest of the world, but not in Poland. They say communism fell in 1989. Not in Poland. World War II and communism both ended in Poland at the same time--in 1979, when John Paul II came home."

And now he is dead. It is fitting and not at all surprising that Rome, to its shock, has been overwhelmed with millions of people come to see him for the last time. The line to view his body in St. Peter's stretched more than a mile. His funeral tomorrow will be witnessed by an expected two billion people, the biggest television event in history. And no one, in Poland or elsewhere, will be able to edit the tape to hide what is happening.

John Paul gave us what may be the transcendent public spiritual moment of the 20th century. "We want God." The greatest and most authentic cry of the human heart.

They say he asked that his heart be removed from his body and buried in Poland. That sounds right, and I hope it's true. They'd better get a big box.

Ms. Noonan is a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal and author of "A Heart, a Cross, and a Flag" (Wall Street Journal Books/Simon & Schuster), a collection of post-Sept. 11 columns, which you can buy from the OpinionJournal bookstore. Her column appears Thursdays.

Copyright © 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Reply 1 - Posted by: JHSMom02, 4/7/2005 12:34:21 AM My heart is full.

Reply 2 - Posted by: cap MarineTet68, 4/7/2005 1:12:05 AM Terrific last line. Wonderful eulogy and history lesson and confirmation of faith reminder of His faithfulness all rolled into one. "...If... My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chron 7:14 (NASB) Maranatha! Lord Come! May we be forgiven our trespasses.

Reply 3 - Posted by: kelty, 4/7/2005 1:16:01 AM This is great. Sometimes Peggy is too saccharine for me, but not this time. I have tears in my eyes. "We" want God, too.

Reply 4 - Posted by: PLPointer67, 4/7/2005 1:40:32 AM Boy! This column is not only a keeper – but a pass-it-on-er! I know some of the 'behind the scenes' stories of John Paul's influence in Poland for the ‘cause of Christ,’ and not just for Catholicism, but I had never heard this story. I’m so glad Peggy shared it. I’m reminded of a song of Christ’s life that Sandi Patty sang. The refrain was: “Could they keep Him in the grave? Could they keep Him in the grave? Could they keep Him in the grave? THEY COULD NOT!” John Paul II was a true, faithful servant of Jesus Christ. He lifted up Christ -- not himself. John Paul was not afraid of the Communists, because he knew he served the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. We all will do well to follow his example. May he rest in peace.

Reply 5 - Posted by: GoldenSt8r, 4/7/2005 4:24:47 AM All I say is Wow! I am in awe. The song ''Every good and perfect plan comes from You'' came to my mind as I read this.

Reply 6 - Posted by: Judy W., 4/7/2005 5:51:14 AM Must-read!

Reply 7 - Posted by: starboard, 4/7/2005 6:32:29 AM A beautiful tribute. Thank you Peggy.

Reply 8 - Posted by: pensom2, 4/7/2005 7:36:17 AM Unfortunately, it sounds like the Pope's body, heart and all, will not be returning to Poland, but will be interred in the catacombs. Pity.

Reply 9 - Posted by: piripi, 4/7/2005 7:47:32 AM One of her best, ever! Well done, Ms. Noonan! Simply superb!

Reply 10 - Posted by: Harmony1, 4/7/2005 7:51:56 AM With this article, the Real Peggy Noonan once again emerges......speaking to the souls of us all who believe in Christ...Amen, Peggy, Amen.

Reply 11 - Posted by: pawtothegirls, 4/7/2005 8:20:04 AM The 5 million people who rushed to Rome were also crying, We want God. John Paul the Great brought them closer to Him than anyone could imagine. The Holy Spirit dispatched Peter and Paul to Rome because He knew the good news would spread from there. Perhaps we are witnessing a repeat?

Reply 12 - Posted by: voxpopuli, 4/7/2005 8:29:21 AM In Mr. Weigel's words: "Poland was not a communist country; Poland was a Catholic nation saddled with a communist state." we know how they felt.. JUDICIARY/NEA/ACLU/MSM/DEMOCRATS... ALL COMMUNISTS..

Reply 13 - Posted by: romanesq, 4/7/2005 8:32:24 AM To be touched and moved by merely words is the finest tribute to a man who is a towering giant of our life and the last century. Peggy Noonan outdid herself this time. An incredibly touching and beautiful tribute. Thank you.

Reply 14 - Posted by: JHSMom02, 4/7/2005 8:33:18 AM Thanks to a previous poster reminding me of Peter's and Paul's mission to the Romans and thus to the world, a thought occurred to me. John Paul II took the names of The Beloved Apostle and the Great Evangelist to become God's and our Beloved Evangelist to the World. Oh how we shall miss him!! AMDG

Reply 15 - Posted by: tnmartin, 4/7/2005 8:38:35 AM I'd heard the story before (and maybe from Peggy, it sounds like her), but it is well worth hearing again. The Pope had no army divisions, but what what he had was what the world needs, and down deep inside we know it. 'Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give unto you. In the name of Jesus, get up.' And that, friends, is the message that a broken world is literally dying to hear. JP2 spoke that message and the world responds.

Reply 16 - Posted by: newfem, 4/7/2005 8:48:24 AM Oh my.

Reply 17 - Posted by: Halfgenius, 4/7/2005 9:05:40 AM It seems we witness and rub elbows with greatness and know not fully of it until it's too late. Many knew not the Pope or cared about his brand of religion, but his message spread and encirclesd all religions. His message was of peace, love and goodwill. Yes he'll be missed, but think of his successor, what giant shoes he must fill, but fill he will, for the world goes on and the Lord knows of our need and will provide, the problem is will the world listen.

Reply 18 - Posted by: wyowumin, 4/7/2005 9:08:13 AM This from one who complained about our President's inaugural speech as being about too much God. This woman is seriously conflicted.

Reply 19 - Posted by: Rumsfeldfan, 4/7/2005 9:27:13 AM This piece was excellent. I read it to my kids.

Reply 20 - Posted by: oudry, 4/7/2005 9:28:11 AM Perhaps this is a wonderful article because it is a wonderful subject. Miss Noonan has hit the nail on the head. This was the message of the Pope. This is why he came and this is why the world is responding to his death with this unprescidented outpouring of grief and rememberance. We truly mourn for ourselves as much as for our loss.

Reply 21 - Posted by: Peaches, 4/7/2005 9:38:25 AM Maybe the very best ever by Peggy Noonan. I don't have tears only in my eyes. They're on my cheeks, too.

Reply 22 - Posted by: raphaela, 4/7/2005 10:19:22 AM Wow. I bet there are so many remarkable stories about our beloved Pope. The world just seems a little colder and lonelier w/o him. Rest in peace, Papa.

Reply 23 - Posted by: Gretchen, 4/7/2005 10:28:01 AM Her line that John Paul served Christ and not himself was perfect. A beautiful article. I will be watching his funeral tomorrow with tears in my eyes.

Reply 24 - Posted by: Douglas DC, 4/7/2005 10:38:36 AM Magnificnet.

Reply 25 - Posted by: MargaretM., 4/7/2005 11:19:34 AM The Pope belongs in the Vatican; when he became Pope, he stopped belonging to the Polish people and belonged to the world (actually he belonged to God all along).

Reply 26 - Posted by: bearclaw, 4/7/2005 11:27:54 AM Reading the part about how the state controlled media wouldn't show a view of the crowds and just showed a brief flash of the Pope giving his Holy Mass reminded me so much of our own news media. I prefer to call them "Tass West". The usual suspects, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and of course papers like the NY and LA Slimes and their ilk who make up Tass West. Can you imagine Christine Amanpour writing an article like this or even noticing this taking place before her very eyes. Yeah right. Christine (the elitist moron) and Tass West are SO oblivious. What a Great Story about just one of John Paul's many escapades and visits to different countries. I'm sure we're going to hear more stories like this in the future about such a great man Pope John Paul II but it won't be from Christine and her cronies at Tass West. Good Show Peggy!!

Reply 27 - Posted by: MargaretM., 4/7/2005 11:31:45 AM How does the Polish Communist media differ from our MSM? Yes, ours show the crowds in this case, but other stories are not covered or covered in full to achieve their ends. The January March for Life never acknowledges the crowds, but the cameras focus on the Pro-Abortion dissenters, etc. We are on the internet because we have learned of their lies.

Reply 28 - Posted by: wtm, 4/7/2005 11:36:05 AM It is NOW time to bring GOD back to the UNITED STATES and let the Liberals know that the MAJORITY wants GOD in their lives here, and we will "no longer" put up with their efforts to delete him !!! LET THE REVIVAL START !!!!!!

Reply 29 - Posted by: Aussiegirl, 4/7/2005 11:43:27 AM It took me a long, long time to get through this article. Every sentence, every phrase, every idea led to many other thoughts and insights and ideas -- a powerful, powerful piece, well worth re-reading and re-digesting. Thanks to Peggy Noonan for putting so much into perspective -- truly a man for all seasons. The powerful words of the Pope spoken in Poland all those years ago still resound in all our hearts today -- and make us examine our own souls -- for his message is timeless and applies to all people everywhere -- and to all times.

Reply 30 - Posted by: remington, 4/7/2005 12:02:04 PM No matter how compelling the emotions stirred with the funeral event of a good and righeous man, there are still those who cannot, or will not, let their souls be lifted in any way. They do not know, and will not learn, of the love and communion with the Supreme Being, which is perhaps some measure of the lengths to which some people will go to deny their spiritual side.

Reply 31 - Posted by: RunRow, 4/7/2005 12:03:47 PM One of the best articles I've ever read. A great tribute to a great man. RIP JP2.

Reply 32 - Posted by: LoveGW, 4/7/2005 12:04:23 PM God wants us, too.

Reply 33 - Posted by: DSchneider, 4/7/2005 12:22:58 PM There is something about that religion. It has produced two of the great spiritual leaders of the post-Luther era: One large, and one small. John Paul II was large, truly a man who promoted Christ - and Catholicism - not always in that order, to the world stage. Mother Theresa was small - she brought Christ - and Catholicism - not always in that order, to a small stage - the poor of Calcutta. Her life became large, but not becuse she promoted it. So what makes the two comparable? Although they were both considered leaders, each chose to live the life of a servant. Would that religious leaders around the country and the world learn that lesson... and so we should too.

Reply 34 - Posted by: BonnieBlueFlag, 4/7/2005 1:09:50 PM Time and time again, the wonderful stories and the accolades are not heard until the person has passed away. I confess to having become complacent about Pope John Paul II, because he had been with us for such a long time. Now as I review his life, and the current outcome of things that he did many years ago, I regret that I did not recognize what a great man he was much sooner. I sincerely appreciate articles like Peggy Noonan's, that can give me a descriptive narration of an event that I could have never witnessed personally.

Reply 35 - Posted by: booshkindoggin, 4/7/2005 1:18:24 PM Good one from Peg - equal parts history and poetry.

Reply 36 - Posted by: CheshireLion, 4/7/2005 1:32:22 PM As a Catholic I witnessed the passing of Paul VI and the election of JP I -- Nothing noteworthy struck me with the new pontiff. 28 days later we had JP II -- Non-Italian, Eastern European -- I knew this was someone special. This was the will of God. God Bless you JP -- We love you.

Reply 37 - Posted by: thelmalou, 4/7/2005 1:33:20 PM Excellent article, and in no small part because it was all about JPII and not about Peggy's "feelings". Nothing against Peggy (except when she gets to ranting about the inaugural speech), but it's a testimony to the greatness of this man. And by greatness, I don't mean superiority to any other human, but actually, greatness because of his humility and his courage. I'm not RC, but I believe JPII was truly a man of God. I pray that another just like him will be put in his stead...

Reply 38 - Posted by: pepperblue, 4/7/2005 1:44:48 PM I have read superb article after superb article on JP2 this week. What keeps running through my mind are the words of one of my favorite songs we sing in church: "Be not afraid. I go before you always. Come, follow me, and I will give you rest." JP2 understood these words of God. I'm now finding new meaning every time I meditate on them.

Reply 39 - Posted by: Adam, 4/7/2005 2:10:34 PM this is magnificent. if you haven't read the whole thing, please do

Reply 40 - Posted by: tatterdemalion, 4/7/2005 2:26:52 PM Probably her best piece ever. Those who have too harshly (and unfairly) criticised her in the past (because of her inauguration columns) should definately read this offering.

Reply 41 - Posted by: weenerdog, 4/7/2005 4:13:03 PM {{sniff}} Er....must be distemper.

Reply 42 - Posted by: afraidfortherepublic, 4/7/2005 4:19:12 PM Here is a link to an interesting insight into this very HUMAN Pope and his effect on those around him:

Reply 43 - Posted by: valleystorm, 4/7/2005 4:25:17 PM I remember being brought to tears watching TV about John Paul's visit to Poland, when it happened. And this article brings me to tears again. And the recounting of that visit in history books will bring tears to future generations reading about it. A truly great man of God.

Reply 44 - Posted by: athina, 4/7/2005 5:42:54 PM Rather than ''merely'' a testimony to John Paul II's greatness, his message to the Poles in 1979 is surely one for US today, as we struggle with the leftist, atheist, ''progressive'' creeping control over our society... --You must be strong with the strength that faith gives! You must be strong with the strength of faith! You must be faithful! You need this strength today more than any other period of our history. . . . So . . . I beg you: Never lose your trust, do not be defeated, do not be discouraged. . . . Always seek spiritual power from Him from whom countless generations of our fathers and mothers have found it. Never detach yourselves from Him. Never lose your spiritual freedom. -- Amen!

Reply 45 - Posted by: scott5js, 4/7/2005 5:53:49 PM Al Qaeda is not godless. Believing in God did not keep 19 men from destroying the World Trade Center, killing almost 3,000 people, and hijacking 2 other planes. Don't assume that the reason Communism was oppressive just because they didn't believe in your religion. In fact there has been plenty of Christian oppression throughout history. The Inquisition, of course. On the other side, Catholicism was outlawed at times in England, and Catholics were viewed as subversive, probable agents of France. Closer to home, being a devout community did not keep Massachsetts Bay Colony from having witchcraft trials. No, those people were all the more convinced they were right.

Reply 46 - Posted by: dblenicklebob, 4/7/2005 6:17:40 PM Last time I checked there was freedom of religion in the US . And I prefer freedom from religion as well .

Reply 47 - Posted by: TexasRose, 4/7/2005 6:31:13 PM God does not stop evil men from doing their evil. He gave us all free will. But, the very notion that "all men are created equal" comes from Christianity's God. (See Gal. 3:28 and Col.3:11.) In India, in fact, many are turning to Christ to get out of their caste systems. Communism promises equality - equal squalor for the peasants. Those in charge get better than that. Islam promises equality - unless you are Christian. Atheists promise... survival of the fittest, I suppose.

Reply 48 - Posted by: amereagle, 4/7/2005 9:58:53 PM It is indeed ironic that Peggy got down on the President for having "too much God" in the inaugural speech.

Reply 49 - Posted by: gop_guys, 4/7/2005 10:58:10 PM Proverbs 29:12. ''When the righteous rule, the people rejoice.''

Reply 50 - Posted by: MsFalconersCabanaBoy, 4/7/2005 11:33:41 PM Freedom of religion entitles anyone to be an atheist if they want. And, in the same sense, freedom of speech entitles people to shut the hell up when they have nothing constructive to contribute. I've spent less time in church than your typical Frenchman spends in the shower. However, unlike most leftists and Frenchman, I don't make it a point to emanate that fact so that all might partake of my gamey essence -- as it were.

Reply 51 - Posted by: sickened, 4/8/2005 1:37:43 AM I don't think expressing a desire to be free 'from' religion, is having nothing to say. It is useful and important for everyone to see their point of view on these boards, and for others to see that the majority viewpoint is not the only one. The Pope was no hero to me. He didn't believe in my existence or the virtue of my relationships. He was an anti-capitalist, probably a socialist, and intolerant. I'll grant the fact that he helped bring down communism, especially freeing Poland. But he also kept many millions unenlightened about the rest of economic and personal freedom.