Letter to Editor

Dear friends at Epoch Times,

Serendipity is the name given to the gift of making unexpected and happy discoveries by accident. Actually, upon reading a recent copy of Epoch Times (Special Edition) that I found on a London Underground train, I am inclined to believe that a Higher Power may lie behind some such joyful discoveries.

Of course, your article "On What the Communist Party Is" reminded me of what I already knew. The gruesome chronicle of Communism's blood-soaked, anti-human history has been told before. Not, however, often enough. "What matters is not what one says, but what one repeats," once wrote Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce. Human memory is ephemeral. What is more, powerful vested interests conspire to make us forget what should never be forgotten. Hence the crucial importance of what you wrote. Epoch Times has strengthened my belief in the moral necessity to keep repeating the truth. To remind decent people everywhere about the full extent of the crimes of Marxism. And this for at least three good reasons.

First, Communism, 'the god that failed,' as one of its former worshippers termed it, continues to wreak havoc in large parts of the world. China's case is the most flagrant. The moral and human enormities committed by the Chinese Communist Party beggar belief. The systematic destruction of China's ancient culture, values and spiritual heritage you highlight so vividly does indeed warrant use of the expression 'cultural genocide.' Although the regime's days of power are numbered, the discredited Party still holds sway over the world's most populous country. Thus, it is not just a matter of historical record. Nor is it something that happened long, long ago, a nightmare from which humanity has now safely emerged. This bankrupt, failed divinity goes on wielding despotic power over the lives of over a billion Chinese men and women. Hence the very real need to fight the evil idol of Marxism.

Second, in China this failed god, jealous of its tyrannical monopoly, steadily harms, tortures and even kills the followers of genuine spiritual paths. As a peace-loving Anglican priest, I am much concerned about the persecution of the charming, non-violent Falun Gong movement. Any political regime that finds intolerable such lovely ideas as 'Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance' must reveal itself as actively malignant--clearly an enemy of the common good.

Of course, as you point out, several faiths are victims of the CP intolerance. Many Chinese priests and bishops are currently jailed, all members of underground churches which refuse to act as the regime's stooges. According to the Roman Catholic Agency 'Asia News,' there are six Chinese Catholic bishops in prison. Thirteen others are under house arrest. Nineteen priests are either in jail or have disappeared. Three more are in concentration camps. Some are presumed killed. Bishop John Gao Kexian's body was returned to his family last August, after five year's detention. A similar, sorry record of persecution applies to Protestant Christians of all denominations. The false Communist idol in its death-throes still lashes out against true, peaceful believers.

Third, the youth of Europe is as yet not sufficiently aware of the crimes, the horrors, perpetrated by Communism. Absurdly, the failed god still has votaries amongst too many young people, especially in continental Europe. Materialism, consumerism and gross carnalities have not stifled the yearning after ideals, after higher values in the heart of the young. In order to give meaning and purpose to their lives, some young people fall into the trap of regarding Marxism as an answer to the questions of third world poverty, under-development, violence and injustice. But how can an ideology responsible for murdering a hundred million human beings be the answer to anything? Young people are right to be idealists, to despise injustice and inequality. Communism, however, has as much right to present itself as a solution to social problems as Jack the Ripper could have to be the answer to the problem of prostitution.

So, dear friends, we people of good will, of any religion or none, must all do our utmost to make sure that any decent person still deceived, still tempted to worship this fraudulent deity, Communism, in China as well as in any other nation, knows the full truth.

God bless you.

Sincerely yours

Revd Frank Julian Gelli
26 March, 2005
London, United Kingdom