Religion: Open Windows?

Is it possible that the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. are suffering from the same spiritual disease? In the current issue of the year-old Roman Catholic monthly Integrity, Editor Ed Willock writes:

“. . . When Marx declared that religion is the opium of the people, he did not mean . . . that the privileged classes were using religion as a drug to keep the underprivileged anesthetized. No, he meant that religion is a consolation for the injustices and burdens of life in a capitalistic world. . . . The bourgeois American subscribes to the same definition of religion as Marx. In America religion is generally cherished merely for its consolation value. A tremolo on the organ, a theologically inaccurate sermon full of sweetness and light, a studious avoidance of the ghastly details of the Passion and our contribution to it, a sentimental misinterpretation of the Sermon on the Mount, the presentation of a God who always understands, demanding no greater retribution than a few coins dropped in the collection box: this is the psychological haircut, shave and massage which the average American erroneously calls religion. . . .

“Communism is a universal idea. Its roots lie in too great concern for the things of this world. Bourgeois Americanism is rooted in the same soil, and unless it is transplanted, the fruit it bears will be the same. The representative of the FBI, fingerprinting Communist Party members, may wake up to discover that he himself subscribes to the same errors. In our anxiety and vigilance to barricade the door against Communist infiltration, we may have left open the windows of our hearts and minds to the same enemy.”