My Beloved America What Happened to You?

​Today is Easter. It is one of the most sacred Christian holidays. I honor this tradition because I know how important the religion is. In the country of my birth, religion was forbidden and punished by law. The Communist Party members did not accept God and used every tool available to brainwash its citizens.
            When Yuri Gagarin, the first-ever cosmonaut to fly into space, returned to Earth, he declared, “I see no God up here.”  I was seven, and I could never forget the excitement the people of the Soviet Union felt when his spaceship took off.
            Every TV channel, which there were a few, and the radio station repeated his name non-stop for months. The oppressive totalitarian government that owned TV and Radio controlled what the social media spewed. Under its auspices, it had to follow the written script composed of words full of propaganda to brainwash the proletariat.
            Yuri Gagarin became an instant hero. The image of him dressed in his cosmonaut suit with the Universe in the background was on display on the façade of every official government building. Above his head, the slogan about God was printed in giant capital letters.
            Granted, the USSR had a reason to celebrate its achievement of being the first in the world to reach space. That meant that they beat their number one enemy—the United States of America.
            At the time, I, too, was brainwashed and believed in the superiority of the Godless country. But later, when I grew older and more intelligent, I realized how horrific it was to live in a world where there was no God. I realized that believing in God is essential and extraordinary. Believing in God means that there is hope for the believer. Believing in God would have sustained everyone who lived in the USSR. Because in the darkness of the oppression, a light illuminating the path to God would have shone through, relieving the oppressed masses.
            So, in today’s celebration of Easter, I would like to reflect on the greatness of God and on the opposing forces that try to exterminate the value of religion in my beloved America. When a government cares more about the pronouns we must use to address each other than honoring the religious practice of most people, I begin to worry. These days, the more I look around and hear the news on social media, the more I recognize the similarity between the tactics the Communists used and the tactics our government uses to suppress the spirit of the American people.