Differing Perspectives
While working among Cuban Americans in Miami, I frequently heard the following story:
Shortly after the Communist revolution in Cuba, there were strong persuasive attempts at turning the people away from God. In grade schools, teachers would ask their students whether God could live up to His promises or not. Of course, the students said yes. The teacher would then illustrate how impotent God actually was. The teacher instructed the students to fervently pray for candy. The students responded with a sad “No.” Then the teacher would ask the students to ask the Communist state for candy. With expectant hearts, the students did so, and the teacher went around the room filling the students’ hands with sweets.
This truly is a differing perspective. Communism as a cure for social ills has no room for a loving God. The state’s protection of the individual for the benefit of the state will never replace God’s own Son dying for our sins on the cross.
Red Alert
The story is told in Russia about the late Premier Leonid Brezhnev, who wanted to impress his old mother from the Ukraine. First he showed her through his sumptuous apartment in Moscow. She said nothing. Then he drove her in his chauffeured black limousine out to his dacha in Usovo, showed her the marble reception rooms, and treated her to a fine lunch of caviar and crab. She still appeared unimpressed. So he flew her in his private helicopter to his hunting lodge in Zavidovo, where a fire crackled in the huge fireplace of the banquet room. She seemed increasingly ill-at-ease. At last he burst out, “Well, Mama, what do you think?” She said with some hesitation, “It’s nice, Leonid, but what if the Communists come back?”