State Worship

Liturgical dance, North Korean style

I've been struck by the outpourings of grief in North Korea, where the People's Republic's beloved leader, Kim Jong-Il (God rest him) has died, apparently, of a heart attack.

I'm assuming that there is no Christianity in North Korea. I'm assuming that if there ever was Christianity in North Korea, that it has been 'destroyed'. Perhaps Dawkins looks to North Korea as something of a model, in terms of religious expression.

What North Korea really shows us is that worship is integral to human beings. In that country, if scenes on television are to be believed, there is weeping and wailing in Pyongyang because of the death of the leader around whom had been built up a mega cult of personality. The State, in that country, as well as the leader, appears to be invested with god-like status. It is rather frightening to watch the scenes, not because of the outpourings of grief, but because we can safely assume that the love directed towards Kim Jong-il is somewhat misdirected. Grief is natural, but the uncontrollable and sometimes quite violent sobbing of the people of Pyongyang suggest that this is no 'Diana' moment for the country, but rather visible proof that the people of North Korea are almost completely brainwashed by the doctrines of the atheist paradise. The ones who aren't brainwashed are, presumably, in gulags somewhere, starving to death.

I always smile when Dawkins says of those who believe Christian doctrines, that we are 'brainwashed'. Has he never thought what an atheistic State in which religion has been all but banished looks like? Did he never look at Mao with his 'little red book' indoctrinating Chinese children of the new doctrines of communism and think, 'Ah, a fine example of a country in which religion has been destroyed'? Does he not look at North Korea and see his atheist paradise in all its glory? Christopher Hitchens (God rest him) spoke of his resistence to faith in God because God demands our love like as in a 'celestial North Korea'. Yet, few believers would say that God's treatment of them was dictatorial. We who know we are sinners know how tenderly Christ calls His sheep back to Him with love and allows us to face the trials and tribulations that come with having free will. We know that it is usually our own disobedience which brings us distress, rather than our obedience. Really, the Lord Jesus shows us just how ungodly and diabolical those mere mortals who seek an entire country's adulation and who want to be worshipped are.

How do we build Utopia, Richard?

In North Korea the State is all-pervasive and all powerful. Religious expression, in terms of traditonal religion, has been crushed. Yet, the desire to worship has been kept intact in North Korea, it cannot be destroyed, and that innate desire to worship has been harnessed towards the State and the leader in charge. It shows us that worship is integral and completely natural for us human beings and that even in North Korea, in the absence of God, we haven't 'evolved' out of it. The desire to worship isn't artificial, something man-made. Worship is as natural for us as waking and sleeping. Our natural human desire to worship can be manipulated by the powerful and used to frightening effect, when it is geared towards the State.

Stalin and Soviet Russia tried desperately to crush religion and enforce upon the populaces of the Soviet bloc a similar kind of State worship, which was almost always accompanied with the obligatory cult of personality surrounding the beloved leaders. Even when religious expression is crushed, a 'god' must be praised, revered, glorified, honoured and even worshippped. In all such set-ups, 'false messiahs' arise who take the praise. Yet, as soon as the 'evil empire' started to come tumbling down, the Russian people flocked to Orthodox churches to worship not a cult of man, but God.

Worship is natural to us but only healthy when God is worshipped, because only God is trustworthy or can be trusted with our love, adoration, praise and worship, however imperfect our love and praise for Him is. Perhaps Dawkins has not looked at North Korea and recognised a State in which Christianity has been 'destoyed', and indeed, really is a model of an atheist paradise. He should beware, however, and see in North Korea that when God is totally eradicated from the public square, something, or someone else has to step in and take the praise, if not the blame.

Sadly, the problem with so many of the high priests of atheism is that you kind of get the feeling that they wouldn't mind terribly if the persons who stepped in to be worshipped were themselves. Dawkins might say, 'Well, how ridiculous. I'm no communist.' Well, maybe he isn't, but really Mr Dawkins, once you've convinced an entire population that there is no afterlife and that there is no Heaven, someone, somewhere, has to start building the earthly utopia pretty quickly. Of course, when utopia doesn't arrive quickly, the ones who say that it isn't utopia need to be silenced. Quite what you do with the ones who want the real deal of the City of God is anyone's guess. All in all, Rich. I think you've got your work cut out here, mate.