Behind these deceptive tactics, however, can be seen the real nature of communism. For the member, religion is _not_ a private affair. No tolerance is allowed. He cannot be a Marxist and adhere to a religion. The Party is today desperately working to mold atheistic materialism as a weapon of revolution, a revolution which, if it is to succeed, must first sap religion’s spiritual strength and then destroy it. The Party’s attack can be traced through four stages: 1. _Recruitment_: keyed to the Party’s general approach toward noncommunists, the issue of religion is minimized. “Try to win recruits on the basis of wages and the class struggle rather than religion,” and, “Go ahead and tell a fellow you believe in God to keep from getting into an argument.” Likewise it is urged, “If we approach a church-goer we do not hit him over the head and tell him his idea is crazy. We take a tactical approach....” Lenin’s advice still holds: “We must not only admit ... all those workers who still retain faith in God, we must redouble our efforts to recruit them. We are absolutely opposed to the slightest affront to these workers’ religious convictions. We recruit them in order to educate them in the spirit of our programme....” 2. _Early indoctrination_: keyed to patience if recruits continue to attend church after joining the Party. They must be gradually “educated.” If new members begin to ask questions, they are to be made to feel, not that their fellow communists are trying to take away their belief, but that these communists are “advanced thinkers,” that they hold a “scientific” concept of the universe, and that religion is to them simply “old-fashioned.” Typical of what members are told are these comments made by communist leaders: —“How silly to think there is a God.” —“Religion comes from primitive man’s worship of such things as thunder, lightning and the sun.” —“Religion was used as an explanation of unanswerable questions, such as ‘Why does it rain?’ Answer: ‘God willed it.’” 3. _Special indoctrination_: keyed to the real job of teaching Marxist materialism are special indoctrination classes. “Our programme thus necessarily includes the propaganda of atheism,” said Lenin, directing his words, of course, to Party members. A few statements from Party members reveal how persistent is the communist fight against God: —“The concept of God is manmade and is based on ignorance.” —“Marxism-Leninism is a science and has solved the mysteries of religion.” —“To be a true communist you have to be an atheist.” —“Communism will supplant religion and will keep you warm and give you all the comforts of healthful living.” —“Religious people fear facts and resort to such things as prayer to end war, but prayers are actually futile and leave war to the capitalists while people sit around praying.”