Why dictatorships fear Christianity

 The notion that a **Christian revolution** directly precipitated the American Revolutionary War captures a profound historical reality, though it requires careful nuance. While the conflict's immediate triggers were political and economic—such as taxation without representation, the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, and Britain's post-French and Indian War efforts to tighten control over the colonies—Christianity, particularly in its Protestant forms, supplied a vital moral framework, ideological justification, and popular mobilization that helped transform grievances into a unified push for independence. This dynamic not only underscores the role of faith in challenging authoritarian rule but also illuminates why modern communist regimes have historically feared and sought to suppress Christianity: it embodies an alternative authority that can inspire resistance to state tyranny, much as it did in colonial America.

The groundwork for this religious influence was laid during the **First Great Awakening**, a sweeping revival that swept through the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. Led by influential figures such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, the movement emphasized personal conversion, a direct relationship with God, and skepticism toward rigid ecclesiastical hierarchies. By challenging established authority and promoting individual spiritual equality before God—including among free and enslaved Black people who attended revival meetings—it fostered a broader culture of questioning distant rulers and hierarchical structures. Historians frequently describe this revival as a cultural and spiritual precursor to the Revolution, creating unprecedented colonial unity across ethnic and social lines while instilling the conviction that defending personal liberty was a divine imperative.

In parallel, communist states like the Soviet Union and China have viewed such revivals with alarm, recognizing that personal faith and allegiance to a higher power undermine the absolute loyalty demanded by the party. This fear led to aggressive campaigns, such as the USSR's League of Militant Atheists in the 1920s and 1930s, which aimed to eradicate religious influence by closing churches, executing clergy, and promoting scientific atheism as a state ideology—efforts designed to prevent faith from becoming a rallying point against oppression.

According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom's 2020 report, Christians in Burma, China, Eritrea, India, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Vietnam are persecuted; these countries are labelled "countries of particular concern" by the United States ...

This awakening's legacy manifested powerfully in the years leading to war. Protestant ministers, especially from Congregationalist, Presbyterian, and Baptist traditions, actively preached that resistance to tyranny aligned with biblical principles of justice and liberty. They drew on scriptures such as Galatians 5:1—"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free"—to frame British policies as assaults on God-given rights. Pulpits became platforms for political mobilization, assuring congregations that rebellion against unjust rule was not only permissible but a Christian duty. These clergy earned the British moniker "Black Robe Regiment" (or "Black Regiment"), a term reflecting their influential role in galvanizing support for the Patriot cause through sermons that blended spiritual fervor with calls for civic action. Over one hundred ministers later served as chaplains in the Continental Army, further embedding religious conviction in the military effort. This pattern of clerical activism echoes in communist contexts, where regimes have targeted Christian leaders as potential subversives. For instance, in Maoist China during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), Christians were persecuted as "counter-revolutionaries" because their teachings on moral absolutes and human dignity clashed with the state's collectivist dogma, potentially inciting organized dissent similar to the colonial preachers' role in fomenting revolution.

This anti-religious stance became foundational to communist regimes, which persecuted churches, clergy, and believers as counter-revolutionaries. The Soviet Union closed thousands of churches, executed priests, and promoted state atheism to eliminate competing loyalties. Christianity's teachings on individual dignity, moral absolutes, divine authority over human rulers, and the sanctity of family and property directly challenge the totalitarian claims of the Marxist state.

Religious grievances intensified colonial resolve. Many viewed the Church of England's authority—and measures like the Quebec Act of 1774, which extended freedoms to Catholics in Canada—as threats to Protestant liberty. Anti-Catholic sentiment intertwined with fears of absolutism, reinforcing the perception that British rule endangered both civil and religious freedoms. Millennial expectations also played a part: some colonists envisioned America as a new covenant community, a "New Israel," where divine favor would reward victory over oppression. Such eschatological views, portraying earthly struggles as part of a divine plan, have similarly unnerved communist authorities, who see them as fostering hope and resilience among the oppressed. In North Korea, for example, the regime's draconian suppression of underground Christian networks stems from the recognition that biblical narratives of liberation—much like those invoked in the American Revolution—could erode the Kim dynasty's cult of personality and inspire clandestine resistance.

Yet the Revolution was never purely a "Christian" uprising in a theocratic sense. Key Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke influenced ideas of natural rights and consent of the governed, which blended with religious convictions among many Founders. Figures like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin leaned toward deism, while others, including John Adams, drew from Protestant traditions without strict orthodoxy. Not all Christians endorsed the cause: Quakers often remained pacifist and neutral, and many Anglicans, bound by oaths of allegiance and interpretations of Romans 13 emphasizing submission to authority, supported the Crown as loyalists. This internal diversity within Christianity highlights why communists have not merely opposed it but sought to co-opt or replace it with state-sanctioned alternatives, such as the "Patriotic Churches" in China, which enforce party loyalty over doctrinal purity to neutralize any revolutionary potential.

In essence, Christianity did not singularly cause the Revolutionary War, but it profoundly shaped the colonists' worldview. The moral sanction provided by revivalist preaching, the ethical justification for resisting tyranny, and the unifying power of shared Protestant convictions gave the independence movement the broad, committed support necessary for success. Without this religious dimension, the political and economic disputes might have lacked the passionate, widespread resolve that propelled the colonies toward nationhood. The American Revolution thus emerged as a complex fusion of secular grievances and deeply rooted faith in divine justice and human liberty—a fusion that explains the enduring communist apprehension toward Christianity. By promoting an authority transcendent to the state and ideals of individual freedom, Christianity poses an inherent threat to totalitarian systems, much as it did to British imperial control, prompting efforts to stamp it out through propaganda, persecution, and enforced secularism to maintain unchallenged power.