Socialism in Czechoslovakia and Parallels of Persecuted Church there and in USA My name is Vladimir Sliva. I came to the US in 1983 and lived in socialist Czechoslovakia before that. I will talk about some frightening parallels between Czechoslovakia and the US now. The U.S. situation seems similar to that in Czechoslovakia when socialism started. And I see it has been deteriorating fast lately. Today is August 12, 2012.

Parallels - Anti-religious laws Confiscation of church property using anti-religious laws happened in –Czechoslovakia outright after communists came to power and here in –the US, charities are forced out of business – the latest is thru fines via violated mandates See, e.g., various US bishops’ documents and statements in References (below the video) Labeling Christians as enemies of state using laws in –Czechoslovakia resulted in religious orders having been disbanded, many priests and religious and some lay people sent to prisons; in –the US we hear this is not a Christian country any more; and Christians are supposed to finance and celebrate other people’s immorality, otherwise they will face persecution by government See, e.g., ADF summary of HHS mandate in References

Parallels - Anti-religious laws – cont’d Laws against life and family including free abortion and free contraception were introduced in –Czechoslovakia right after communists grabbed power in 1948; the Contraception law was never reinforced there and little known to Czechs is the fact today is that this law 66/1986 Sb. is still technically in effect; in –the US the HHS mandate has been the law since August 1

More Parallels between Czechoslovakia and the US Another parallel is that of Divide and conquer; in –Czechoslovakia, while Catholics were not able to print books, protestants who were in minority – with respect to Catholics - could (that way we got Ecumenical Bible – where we apparently cooperated regardless); in East Germany there were more Protestants than Catholics, so Catholics were allowed to print books. Pacem in terris was an organization of traitorous priests in Czechoslovakia, and those were usually blackmailed into this organization by the government; eventually, the cardinal had to ban that organization. And in –the US, some poorly catechized Catholics are taken advantage of by the government to help in attacks against the faithful Catholics, e.g., Large percentage of those claiming to be Catholics voted in 2008 for politicians and parties that officially advertised going against the non-negotiable Catholic teaching against abortion and that way these voters helped to install the anti-Catholic HHS mandate “Freedom to worship” at church only was something we had in –Czechoslovakia; however, when you went to church, consider that You will never get a good job and Your children are to be excluded from education starting with high school which was already selective; –Here in the US, I have noticed the government stopped to talk about “religious freedom” and instead talks about “freedom of worship” which is frightening to me

More Parallels Another parallel - Media, schools, filmmakers provide dishonest news, re-write history and traditions. –Czechoslovakia had a tightly controlled government machine on information. One example how they manipulated information flow is that I was not aware of Mothers Day which had been celebrated in Czechoslovakia before socialism – I have only learned about it after I came to the US. –US media is voluntarily promoting socialism: Events with hundreds of thousands like March for Life go unreported. Government schools do not mention to students traditions even like Valentines Day now.

I would like to illustrate where I think it is going in the US now Things are here now in the U.S. how they started in Czechoslovakia around 1948, and I see it getting worse. So the following Czech examples show how our future here is likely to look like unless we vote right. In Czechoslovakia in the 80s the law about the Offense of obstructing surveillance of churches was used which could put you to jail for 2 years and you could get kicked out from university as well. Here are s5ome examples what were just some underground activities for which we could have been caught: –Underground preparation for baptism, marriage, other Catholic sacraments. Our priest was František Kohlíček – he had spent 10 years in prison where he was exposed to radiation in uranium mines – apparently, they tried to kill him. –Another illegal activity I participated in were weekly meetings with other university students in this priest’s apartment. –One weekend we went to a secret location outside of Prague where a priest whose permission to be a priest had been revoked by government. He served daily mass illegally. After revolution he was allowed to perform his priestly duties again and then became bishop, arch-bishop, then cardinal and then the head of the Czech church. His name is Miloslav Vlk. Even 23 years after Velvet revolution which was in 1989 –Confiscated property still stolen and –Immoral laws against life and family still in place

What can be done start from yourself get informed defend God’s leaders vote based on God’s rules participate in public events

Conclusion If I did not get the point across and the socialism takes permanent hold in the US, I expect that to resolve the immigration problem, since nobody will want to come here any more. Thank you for listening and please vote pro- life and you will live in prosperity.