Godlessness -> Communism

I begin to wonder about young men and about people in general who do not believe in God. There are lots of them. Do you know that about 75 million Americans do not even belong to any church? Do you know that about 25 million more who do belong to churches take no part whatever in them, making a total of about 100 million Americans who, for some reason or another, have almost completely excluded God from their lives?

When I talk with young people about such a situation, I always like to ask them to consider the fruits of godlessness. What does it do to you to be without God? What does it do to you to be without religion? Can it benefit you, or can it hurt you? I ask them to look around and see what kind of people the godless people are. I read a very interesting discussion the other day by one of our great Americans, Mr. J. Edgar Hoover, a man whom I respect highly. He pointed out in this discussion that one of the outstanding fruits of godlessness in the world right now is Communism. Communism, he says, is a direct result of godlessness. Men who do not believe in God, who fight God, who put God out of their lives, and try to eliminate him from the lives of everybody else are the ones who produced Communism.

Is Communism something that you would like to take into your life? It is one of the fruits of godlessness. Do you want to have within you the fruits--or rather I should say the seeds of Communism? Do you realize that the seeds of Communism are sprouting even now from godlessness?

You know what Communism has done to the world. You know how it has spread. You remember Hungary, don't you? And you remember Poland? Do you want to have anything like that in your life? Do you want the fruits of godlessness to become a part of you and your future?

- Elder Mark E. Petersen
General Conference, October 1960