Listen to the commentary

Dear Marketplace Friend,

It’s been 54 years since I last wore a football helmet. That was my senior year of high school; no college scouts were on the lookout for me after my games, so it became a memory and life-lesson- rich season that came to an end. Cheri was a pep-squad babe, but her back was always to the field. She was focused on the home-fan stands while I was looking through my helmet at the field. Nowadays, our youngest grandson is in full pads, playing Pop Warner football. Suddenly, my bride is interested in football. One question that came up this week, while watching college ball games: “Why does the coach use his papers to cover his mouth?”

I’m now the live “color commentator” at our house, coaching the former flag-twirler as she becomes the consummate-grandmother on the field. The answer: the other team can use lip-readers to listen-in on the plays being called by the other team. Covering their mouth keeps the next play a secret.

Since Eden, the head coach for the team called Evil has been out to beat the Almighty in the game that’s underway on the field called Earth, with all of humanity the two teams in opposition.

The Evil One hasn’t covered his mouth very well; his game plan has frequently been leaked, but Team Kingdom has often played without good intel about Evil’s intentions.

Sixty-five years ago, author Cleon Skousen – a former FBI leader – wrote a book called The Naked Communist. In it, he exposed what he knew to be 45 Current Communist Goals. In January of 1963, those were read into the Congressional Record as a precaution regarding the global threat of Communism (click here to see the summation of those goals).

People who are opposed to communism – a political system wherein the state owns and controls everything – are often characterized as old-money fascists who are out to dominate the poor. In reality, this competition of belief systems has sparked war throughout history. Now, in our enlightened age – post cold-war – who seems to be winning?

Download that brief summation; it will cause pause as you realize how haunting the headlines of today should be as we realize how much this evil belief system is now de rigueur and unchallenged. Some examples from the list of the play-calls from the other side’s head coach:

11.  Promote the United Nations as the only hope for mankind.

17. Get control of the schools… Get control of teachers’ associations. 

20.  Infiltrate the press.

26.  Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity, as “normal, natural, healthy.”

27.  Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the 

Bible…

40.  Discredit the family as an institution; encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41.  Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents.

Are we making a political shift in these Monday morning meet-ups? No way. Last Friday – at the Family Research Council’s Pray Vote Stand Summit – Dr. Ben Carson referenced this sobering strategy in his comments: “’Does any of that stuff sound familiar? This is all the things that are happening in our society today,’ he added, noting that ‘we think we won the Cold War.’ Carson surmised that allies of communism ‘had a longer plan.’”

We know the Enemy’s plan. Are we clear about ours? Jesus’ directive was clear: “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5). Salt delays the decay of dead flesh; light points the way to the path. Our agenda should be His agenda. Salt and light; we have work to do.

Maybe we ought to figure out how to push back against the Evil team’s plans…

Bob Shank

Current Communist Goals

From the Congressional Record · January 10, 1963

1. United States (US) acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. US willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the US would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or 

not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the United Nations (UN).

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle 

the German question by free elections under supervision of the UN

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests a

as long as negotiation are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the UN.

11. Promote the United Nations as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it 

be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist 

leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the United Nations as by Moscow. 

Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the US Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American Institutions by claiming their 

activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist 

propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in 

textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under

Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking

positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American 

Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute 

shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive,

meaningless art.”

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech 

and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, 

magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity, as “normal, natural, healthy.”

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and 

emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a “religious crutch.”

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates 

the principle of “separation of church and state.”

29. Discredit the America Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern 

needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for 

the “common man.”

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the 

grounds that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history 

since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture: education, 

social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral

problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive 

control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution; encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute 

prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition: 

that students and special-interest groups should rise-up and use united force to solve economic, 

political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing 

jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.