Less than 20 years into the 21^st Century and it seems that many Americans have either forgotten, or simply do not know about, what could arguably be described as the largest worldwide scourge of the 20^th Century.  Roughly 97 million people died in two world wars.  However, more than 100 million people died under the governing system of Communism in what many historians have called the bloodiest century in the history of man.

Each year the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation commissions a poll of Americans to find out what they know about Socialism, Marxism and Communism, the triplets of totalitarianism.

Here is what their newly released 2019 survey has found:

•  The percentage of American Millennials who say that they are likely to vote for a socialist is 70%.   The number who say they are “extremely likely” to vote for a socialist candidate has doubled from 10% in 2018 to 20% in 2019.

• Young people aged 23-38, known as Millennials, and those aged 16-22, known as Generation Z, views of capitalism has taken a big hit with only one-in-two having a favorable view of capitalism.

• Communism is viewed favorably by more than one-in-three Millennials (36%), up 8 points since 2018.

• Marxism has the highest favorability among Millennials at 35%, up 6 points since 2018.

• 7 in 10 Americans do not know that communism has killed over 100 million people.

• Only 57% of Gen Z and 62% of Millennials, compared to 88% of Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation, think that China is a communist country.  (I’d bet that a poll of NBA players and owners is closer to 1%. Most of them seemed to have had no idea that Twitter has been banned by the government of China since 2009.)

• While 80% of Americans say that they trust themselves more than government or community to take care of their own interests, younger generations are 25% less likely to say this.

• Overall, capitalism is still viewed favorably by 61% of all Americans.

• Overall, among all Americans there is more hesitancy to vote for a “democratic socialist” than there was last year.

• Perceptions of communism and Marxism vary widely across generations.

• Only 57% of Millennials, compared to 94% of the Silent Generation think the Declaration of Independence better guarantees freedom and equality over the Communist Manifesto.

• Millennials are the least likely to have studied communism in high school, but they are more likely to have studied it in college.

• Millennials are much more likely to report communism being presented favorably in K-12 and college than are older generations.

• While 83% of Americans say that they know at least a little about socialism, 66% of Americans cannot accurately define socialism.

• Baby Boomer opposition to voting for a democratic socialist has increased by 8 points since 2018.

• Nearly half of Millennials think that the government should provide a job for everyone who wants to work but can’t find a job.

• 37% of Millennials think America is one of the most unequal societies in the world.

• One in four Americans say that Donald Trump is a bigger threat to world peace than figures like Kim Jung-un, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.

This article was originally published by AFA of Indiana.

It’s true that socialist Bernie Sanders is anything but a millennial. And it’s true that socialism was popular long before any millennials were born. But there’s no doubt that socialism is becoming increasingly popular among young people today. Why?

According to the Daily Caller, “Young people view socialism as more attractive than older people. Of people ages 18-29, 55 percent considered socialism favorably compared to other age groups, according to a 2016 Gallup poll. Only 37 percent of people between the ages 30 and 49 viewed socialism as positive. 27% percent of people between 50 and 64 years old thought of socialism positively.”

So, millennials, especially younger millennials, have a very favorable view of socialism. But do they – or most of us – even know what it is?

Prof. Jay Richards offers this helpful primer:

“Marx and his disciples claimed that ‘capitalism’ must give way to ‘socialism,’ where private property would be abolished and an all-powerful state would own everything on behalf of the people. That’s what Marx meant by the word socialism, and that’s the main dictionary definition.

“This was only supposed to be a stage, though, not the end of all our strivings. At some point, under socialism, people would lose their silly fondness for property, family, religion, and other evils. A ‘new socialist man’ would emerge and then the state would ‘wither away.’ Everyone would enjoy peace, prosperity, and the brotherhood of man. Marx and his acolytes called that final, stateless paradise ‘communism.’”

And how has that vision worked itself out in history?

Prof. Richards states: “Here’s the point: Those regimes led by mass murderers with their gulags, death camps, man-made famines and killing fields were socialist. That’s not slander. It’s what these countries called themselves. USSR stood for the ‘Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.’

“You gotta break millions of eggs with socialism to make the communist omelet. Socialism, you might say, was the necessary evil to reach the bliss where no state would be necessary.”

Yet the lure of socialism continues, getting stronger in the last few years, especially among American youth. Why?

Here are three simple reasons.

1) Young people want “equality.” The word “equality” has become almost sacred to the younger generation, and in many ways, that’s a good thing. They want a level playing field. They want everyone treated fairly. They want to leave behind our discriminatory, racist past. All that is positive.

Unfortunately, there is often a passion for equality that is not based on realism (or function, as in all the talk about “marriage equality,” where sex differences are blurred).

The fact is that life is not always fair. There are winners and losers. And some people work harder than others, because of which they succeed more.

That success is well-deserved and should be appreciated. But all too often today, success through hard work is scorned.

Question: “Why should you have more than I do?”

Answer: “Because I worked hard for it.”

Response: “But that’s not fair.”

Socialism, then, is the fix!

2) Young people today have a deep sense of entitlement. Conservapedia.com defines the entitlement mentality as “a state of mind in which an individual comes to believe that privileges are instead rights, and that they are to be expected as a matter of course.”

I am owed a free lunch, and it’s got to be a good lunch too. The lunch of my choosing. I deserve it.

As explained by Dr. John Townsend in his book The Entitlement Cure, “Entitlement is the belief that I am exempt from responsibility and I am owed special treatment. Entitlement is: the man who thinks he is above all the rules. The woman who feels mistreated and needs others to make it up to her.”

This dangerous attitude is crippling a whole generation. As expressed by Kate S. Rourke in her article, “You Owe Me: Examining a Generation of Entitlement,” “Children in the most recent generation of adults born between 1982 and 1995, known as ‘Generation Y,’ were raised to believe that it is their right to have everything given to them more than any other previous generation.”

Socialism plays right into this mindset, especially the fuzzy, idealized, quite-unrealistic socialism being put forward today: “We all get our free lunch!”

Unfortunately, that can only happen when the government owns all the lunches. Do young people understand this?

3) Young socialists haven’t done the math. The obvious question is this: “If you’re getting a free lunch – no, if we’re all getting a free lunch – who’s paying for it?”

The immediate, thoughtless answer is: “The government!”

And that leads to the real question: “Who’s paying the government?”

The answer is as painful as it is obvious: “You are!”

As one news commentator suggested, there’s no reason to wait for the government to become socialist. Just start paying more taxes today and do your part. Right!

Do you remember the viral video clip where a young Florida woman, Peggy Joseph, was ecstatic after hearing candidate Barack Obama speak in 2008? She said, “I won’t have to worry about puttin’ gas in my car, I won’t have to worry about payin’ my mortgage.” Obama will take care of it!

Six years later, working as a nurse and the suburban mom of four kids, she was asked by filmmaker Joel Gilbert, “Did Obama pay for your mortgage and did he pay for your gas?”

She laughed and replied, “Absolutely not! Mortgage got worse and gas prices got higher… At that time we needed a change but a change for the better not the worse.”

When I asked my assistant Dylan, himself in his early 30’s and the married father of four, why he thought so many young people were into socialism, he answered, “Perhaps because of being so absorbed with social media that they’re used to soundbite answers and haven’t thought it through.”

Or, as Jay Richards stated, “Too many of us are still clueless about socialism and communism. I blame biased media and fuzzy thinking.”

The bottom line is that most young proponents of socialism simply haven’t done the math. Had they done so, they’d start working the capitalist system a little harder. They would find it far more rewarding than socialism.

This article originally posted at AFA.net.

A survey conducted online between June 5-9, 2017 by the Barna group poll shows that many Americans still rely on prayer as a means to communicate with God. The study shows that prayer is the most common faith practice among adults with 79 percent of the population engaging in prayer at least once in the past three months.

Here are some of the interesting things the study found:

Eighty-two percent of praying adults most often pray silently and by themselves. 13 percent pray audibly by themselves. And 2% pray audibly with another person or group or collectively with a church.

When asked what the content of their prayers were, 62 percent listed gratitude and thanksgiving, 61% listed the needs of family and community, 49 percent listed personal guidance in crisis, 47 percent for health and wellness, 43 percent for confession and forgiveness or things they suddenly felt the urge to pray about, 41 percent for safety in daily tasks or travel, 37 percent for a sense of peace and blessings for meals, 34 percent for specific requests from others, 24 percent about concerns in our nation or government, 20 percent about concerns over global problems or injustices, 12 percent about their sleep, and 8 percent reciting Scripture, meditations, or liturgies.

Elders are 30 percent more likely to pray for health and wellness than 38 percent of millennials, who reported doing so. Lower income earners, 52 percent (under $50,000) also pray this type of prayer more often than higher income earners, 42 percent (over $100,000). Those living in rural areas as opposed to more urban locations are more likely to pray for health, perhaps because access to medical services and gyms and health centers are not as easily accessible.

Thirty-seven percent of prayers are for a sense of peace. Those with children under the age of eighteen are more likely to pray for a sense of peace, likely because raising children can feel rather chaotic at times. People who live in big cities are also more prone to pray this prayer (43 percent) over those who live in small, rural areas (29 percent).

Elders are more likely than their younger millennial counterparts to cover prayer requests from others. 27 percent of millennials said they actually follow through with praying for specific prayer requests from others, while 47 percent of elders said they cover requests from others.

Twenty-four percent of paying adults make it a point to pray about their concerns for the nation or government. When it comes to global problems or concerns, only 20 percent, or 1 in every 5 Americans pray specifically for these issues.

Millennials and parents with children under the age of 18 are most likely (both at 19 percent) to pray for sleep. Just 1 percent of elders are likely to pray for sleep, and 9 percent of adults with no children under the age of 18 pray for sleep.

Women are more likely than men to cover each category listed in the survey. Evangelicals are also most likely to be praying actively about each category. Evangelicals are especially prevalent to pray for the needs of their families and communities (89 percent), gratitude and thanksgiving (69 percent), and confession and forgiveness (77^ percent).

Though 89 percent of those surveyed direct their prayers to God, this does not mean that they are all praying to the same god – some do not even pray to a diety. No specific definition for God was given in the survey so the widespread meaning of the word usage could be very broad. “For instance,” the survey notes, “Only half of praying adults (50 percent) pray to Jesus, and less than one-quarter (23 percent) pray to the Holy Spirit.” 28 percent of those surveyed claimed to have no faith whatsoever.

Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

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Mainstream Media are master stagers, adept at slick productions edited to create the cultural scene, the public perception of their desiring.

In the world of stratospheric real estate, stagers move in furnishings and artwork, paint, light candles, bake bread or cookies — everything possible to touch the emotions of potential buyers and elicit a sale.

In the world of what poses as journalism, the authors and pundits selectively edit and present the news through the Leftist lens, such that Americans at large consume not facts, but ideologies.

If you had to ask John Doe on the street, “What issues are most important to Millennials?” their answers based on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, etc., would most likely be climate change, “choice,” LGBT and marriage equality issues, and marijuana legalization. Alas, John D. would be wrong.

Oh, Obama and his cohorts keep lambasting us with the “Climate Change is the biggest threat to mankind!” rhetoric.

Modern day climate and ecology tyrants exemplify Romans 1:

²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

The President is unable to utter the words “radical Islamic terrorism” in the same sentence and in that order. And yet, our POTUS recites ad nauseam the LGBTQ mantra of Pride! Does Pres. Obama realize his words confirm more verses in Romans 1?

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.

²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.

President Obama proclaims “Islam is a religion of peace!” and the Islamic call to prayer is “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”

The Left’s secular, Socialist indoctrination of America and her youth marches on, driven by education elites and the media.

And yet, despite this ever present Climate and Sexual Perversion Propaganda, millennials march to a slightly different beat.

A recent Ipsos study of 2016 election issue concerns which surveyed “1,141 adults age 18-34 from the continental U.S., Alaska and Hawaii” returned strikingly unexpected results. Ipsos is a global market research company with worldwide headquarters in Paris, France.

Look closely at the chart below which lists the “most important issues for the next President of the United States to prioritize”:

Notice that Climate Change is number 9, Abortion number 13, Marijuana number 12 and LGBTQ issues number 13.

Those results are slightly heartening and would be more so were it not for MSM’s wholesale silence on the survey. All we hear in the ethernet and on broadcast news are the proverbial crickets of verboten knowledge.

Also of note, on page six of the report, 57 percent of the respondents either strongly or somewhat agree that “Terrorism fueled by religious extremism is a bigger threat than gun violence” and 58 percent either strongly or somewhat agree that “The government should protect the Second Amendment right of all Americans to buy guns if they want to.”

What this report and these results mean is there is hope!

With all of The Left’s high-powered marketing, glitzy Hollywood production, and monopoly of the broadcast news and education establishment, they still have not completely eradicated independent thought and values. Millennials do not quite yet walk in Progressive lockstep.

Conservatives and Christians, for the most part, are about 100 years late to the culture war Progressives (née Socialists/Marxists) have been waging via every possible societal gatekeeper.

What now?

Time to wake up. Time for each and every Conservative, every Bible-believing Christian to make haste and dive headlong into the fray. There are hearts and souls, and ultimately the future of our beloved nation in the balance.

We must use our time and our money to reach those whose hearts have not yet hardened to the truth of Psalm 32:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.

We must remind each American of the precepts of the Founders, which were the precepts of the Bible. We must implement superior marketing to message the sanctity of life and natural marriage, and every other value we hold dear.

Conservatism is no fad, no flash in the pan. It is a time-tested worldview tempered by biblical principles, principles which, when acted upon result in life and abundant life for individuals, families, and nations.

Mainstream Media has staged its Progressive Production; time for Conservatives to shatter that evil facade and deliver the truth that could rescue not only Millennials, but all of America.

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