1. In the Marxist-Leninist view, what is the prblem with religion?

Why can't someone be a good Communist and a good Christian (or Jew or Muslim or...) simultaneously? 2. On p. 47, author Froese talks about the Soviet "push-and-pull strategy"; what does he mean by this? 3. Thinking about religion, does it, too, have a "push-and-pull strategy," that is, can we think about ways in which religion both pushes away ideological competitors and pulls people into its own sphere? God is an idea, myth, cultural element, comfort, They wanted to create an earthly utopia, and liberate their minds from religious superstition The Russian Orthodox church dominated the culture, and Soviet leaders wanted to free them from the religious power of the Orthodox Chirch. In essence, Soviet officials hoped to replace the spirit and symbol of God with that of the Soviet state. They wanted to REPLACE IT The ideas of Marxist- Lenninists fit firmly within an ongoing movement within the sociology of religion which assers that modern economies, technologies, and cultures naturally dispel public religiousity. (They were trying to become modernized and more innovative) Soviets consciously hoped to relplace religious belief with athiestm, which has led scholars to call Marxist-Leninism a religion. The disgust for religion moticated the massive campaign to replace it during the soviet era. There nation was not infused with supernatural meaning. Seperated church and state They wanted t o satisfy the citizens lingering need for religious meaning and practice without the harmful concept of God. They wanted a Utopian Society and have the citizens put their faith in to their nation, and dreamt about eliminating poverty, restructure the economy, and produce a Communist culture with a new set of values, beliefs, and identities. New society with new ideologies, and religious loyalities, and ethical principles. They wanted to get rid of religious institutions, practicies, and communities. They wanted to implement new world views or moral beliefs. They wanted to disprove religion because logic proves that the supernatural is meaningless Religion is false. Soviet leaders wanted to DOMINATE their intellectual, academic, and professional lives. The soviet union wanted to have religious like devotion, a new faith in soviet communism, that did not require God. **

The state wanted to have power and regulate relgious activity The soviet republic wanted absolute control. Giving the citizens an immense emancipation, such as the freedom to be religious, is threatending to their power and authoritative role. Religion and politics are tricky to mix because they are separate, and generally religious belief is stronger. Religion requires its own rules and regulations in which the state should not interfere with. However, since they can not, the state has less power. Church-state relationship, altering beliefs, Innovative response

Push and pull strategy: In the 1920s and 1930s, the soviet regime ensured that religious competitors became less and less of a problem by using a push and pull method. With it, they would push their ideals upon the citizens through sheer force and brutality. Then the Marxist- Leninists would pull in loyalists with the lure of utopian dreams and theistic alternatives to religion.