There is what I would consider hard fascism/socialism/communism, and then there’s the softer variety. Both are oppressive with regard to freedoms and both share multiple traits. They differ though in how they achieve their goals. In the case of hard communism, governments like the old Soviet Union and their satellite eastern bloc countries used the gun as the primary means to enforce and promulgate their ideology.

Fast forward now to modern day Europe and America; the age of Obama is in full swing and Europe is already nothing more than an impotent shadow of its former self. In our day and age, we have a softer variety of socialism to contend with. Instead of guns, the ideology is supported with various opiates like government entitlements and the redistribution of wealth. Bullets have essentially been replaced with a gigantic government wet nurse who insists on keeping her adult charges in diapers.

But, peer a little deeper . . . just beneath the guns or diapers . . . and you will see a commonality between the hard and the soft varieties of fascism/socialism/communism. What you will unearth is sloth. I’m not talking about the animal mind you. I’m speaking instead of sloth with respect to its definition under the seven deadly sins, which unfortunately has become all but lost in our era.

Peter Kreeft in his wonderful and relevant book, “Back to Virtue,” reminds our generation what sloth is and isn’t. It is not, for example, laziness. Americans especially are highly productive. We are, by nature, go-getters. Many of us live at a frenetic pace, balancing the responsibilities of work and family. We are hardly lazy . . . yet, as a nation we are sliding to Gomorrah on the sloth express.

So, what is the old time definition of sloth that is so lost from the common knowledge of our era and thusly so imperils our society? According to St. Augustine it is, “sorrow about spiritual good.” Peter Kreeft gives an updated version of Augustine’s definition by restating it as:

“Joylessness when faced with God as our supreme good” (Back to Virtue. Peter Kreeft, page 153)

Sloth is, as Kreeft explains, the state of being when one has simply lost his appetite for God. This, of course, also happens to be an absolutely necessary prerequisite of both hard and soft fascism/socialism/communism. In the hard variety, churches were simply taken over by the state and converted to other non-religious uses. In countries like China, the practice of non-state sanctioned religion is a punishable offence worthy of an all expense paid trip to a re-education resort (aka, a concentration camp).

On the other hand, the soft variety of socialism encourages sloth by employing the equivalent of cyanide laced Kool Aide. In our current era, a little bit of sugar makes the socialist ideology go down. Religion in soft socialism becomes pigeonholed as an entirely subjective, personal ‘tradition’ that should never, ever intrude into one’s civic life. If you do not behave toward religion in this prescribed manner, then you are guilty of violating soft socialism’s uber-value, tolerance. Of course, in soft socialism’s case, tolerance is used as the primary weapon to dismantle the people’s reliance on God.

An existence where God is mostly irrelevant leaves a vacuum in the human heart. By nature we have a God-sized cavity in our souls. We are de facto God seekers, each and every one of us. Soft socialism, in order to satisfy the hungry human heart, tries to fill that cavity with various forms of quasi-religions, like the purely materialistic view of reality born of evolutionism (as opposed to the biological theory of Evolution). In this quasi-religion, material reality is all there is and science is elevated to a sort of priesthood; faith becomes limited to a belief that through science all of material creation will eventually become subservient to man . . . even death and aging. Is it any wonder then that leftist college professors seem so simpatico with the socialist ideals of Obama and the Democrats?

The government cannot precisely control all the ways that man may try to fill the God-sized cavity in his soul. Man, in trying to replace the only ultimate and lasting joy (i.e. God), will resort to other transient forms of pleasure (as opposed to joy). Modern mans’ descent into sloth well explains the explosion in pornography that is so widely and easily available on the Internet. It also explains renewed and growing interest in New Age Occultism (for example, this article on Foxnews highlights the growing interest in Occultism subsequent the downturn in the economy).

A Godless and therefore, Anti-God form of government like soft socialism also cannot control the destructive effects of sloth on the human psyche. I believe, from a Christian perspective, that sloth (i.e. losing one’s appetite for God, the only ultimate and lasting joy) probably underlies the growth of depression in western nations. When one tries to fill an infinite space in one’s soul (that God-sized cavity) with fleeting pleasures, what else can one expect except continuous disappointment, longing, and despair . . . in other words, depression?

Overall, it is the goal of both hard and soft forms of socialism to stamp out religion. In effect, it becomes a socialist government’s policy to institute old-time sloth (of the seven deadly sins variety) in its population. Socialism wishes very much to replace an appetite for God, with an appetite for some fictional, impossible human utopia brought about by itself.

Simply put, Sloth is losing your appetite for God. And as sloth grows in a people as a whole, the lid of Pandora’s Box is slowly opened to greater and greater extents. Societal ills will therefore flow from this in greater and greater torrents. For there is no joy that can replace God.

I will close this post with a challenge for any atheists or agnostics out there . . . the challenge comes courtesy of a video by Andrew Klavan of PJTV.com. He calls it, “Prepare to Meet Your Maker: Find God in 60 Days.” Klavan offers a humorous infomercial approach to the idea of giving God a try by setting aside 10 minutes a day for 60 days to pray to God, even if you don’t believe He exists. It’s a good and fool-proof idea, because with God anything is possible. If you combine God with a receptive human heart, then the God-sized cavity in the human soul will begin to fill up with what it was intended for, God. And, when that happens, the Sauls of the world become the Pauls of the world.

If you are one of those atheists or agnostics who want to give Klavan’s challenge a try, then please do persist for the 60 days, but also beware of something else. Persons who have been mired in sloth and are just starting in prayer are a lot like a man approaching a benevolent king with both hands open. The king very much wants to bestow truth, goodness, and beauty into your awaiting hands, but there’s precious little free space there. For those who are just now rekindling their appetite for God, their hands are not open and empty. Their hands are open (because of prayer), but filled with much garbage put there in consequence to sloth. The solution? Pray that God not only shows you Himself in all his glory, but also helps you to remove the garbage that prevents Him from abundantly filling your hands with the Gifts of heaven. If you should try this little experiment for the next 60 days, then Godspeed and you’ll be in my prayers as well.