The church, in communist eyes, is an “enemy” institution to be infiltrated, subverted, and bent to serve Party aims. Any successes make the comrades diabolically happy. One member, talking to her communist friends, laughed about prayers in church. “Who wants to hear such stuff, but what can I do? That’s the only way I can get in there.” We might expect, considering the importance of materialism in communist theory, that the Party’s constitution would set forth atheism as a basic principle of communism. But “... we do not declare,” said Lenin, “and must not declare in our programme that we are ‘Atheists’....” The Party’s aim, in addition to that of exploiting the church, is to neutralize religion as an effective counterweapon. At present virtually nothing is being said in open Party propaganda that is antireligious. Pamphlet after pamphlet is issued on civil rights, “peace,” “democracy”; very few on religion. Communists in the United States, however, are on record in regard to their views on religion: for example, Earl Browder, _Communism in the United States_ (1935), pages 334-49; William Z. Foster, _The Twilight of World Capitalism_ (1949), pages 87-99 and “Reply to a Priest’s Letter,” _Political Affairs_ (October, 1954). Also, a pamphlet, _Science and Religion_, by Marcel Cachin (1946), editor of _L’Humanité_, French communist newspaper, has been circulated. If members are forced to present the Party’s views, they are instructed to stress, as Lenin did, that religion is a “private matter” for the individual, and to pose as “tolerant.” Doesn’t the Party’s constitution say that a person is eligible for membership “regardless of ... religious belief”? The object here is to dull the vigilance of the noncommunist mind and to make religious belief appear as something minor, secondary, and inconsequential. When tactically expedient, the communists even liken themselves to the early Christian martyrs suffering persecution for attempting to aid mankind. One cartoon published in _The Worker_ shows a sketch of Christ in the form of a wanted criminal. The caption reads: _REWARD for Information Leading to the Apprehension of_— JESUS CHRIST WANTED—for Sedition, Criminal Anarchy, Vagrancy, and Conspiring to Overthrow the Established Government Dresses poorly. _Said_ to be a carpenter by trade, ill nourished, has visionary ideas, associates with common working people, the unemployed and bums ... Alias: “Prince of Peace. Son of Man” ... _Professional agitator._ Red beard, marks on hands and feet the result of injuries inflicted by an angry mob led by respectable citizens and legal authorities. A _Daily Worker_ writer, reviewing a movie in which the background was laid in the early Christian era, says: “Some interesting parallels can be found between the persecution of the Christians shown in the film and the political jailings in the United States today.”