Why Not Communism? The Promise, the Truth, and the Gift of Freedom
More than 1,200 people gathered for Cornerstone University’s 10th Wisdom Conversations to examine communism’s promises and consequences — and what freedom, truth and the Gospel offer in their place.
Cornerstone chose the topic in response to shifting public opinion toward socialism and communism. The evening drew an overflow of students, community and online audiences to hear: Why Not Communism? A Wisdom Conversation on Freedom, Faith, and the Future of America. Xi Van Fleet and Yeonmi Park spoke as survivors of communism; Dr. Gary Saul Morson, Northwestern University professor and the world’s foremost authority in Russian literature and Soviet communism, examined communism against the record of history; and Seth Dillon, CEO of The Babylon Bee, confronted the perils of losing the freedom to speak.
President Gerson Moreno-Riaño named the evening’s most important question and theme: the beauty of liberty and freedom Americans enjoy as a gift from God.
Opening the evening, best-selling author, national radio cultural commentator and Cornerstone Distinguished President’s Fellow Eric Metaxas praised Cornerstone’s willingness “to ask the big questions” — in Wisdom Conversations and the classroom. He called communism a “siren song for the young. They promise many, many things that everybody wants. And not only don’t they deliver those things, but they deliver the opposite of those things.”
The Promise and the Trap
For Van Fleet, who survived Mao’s Cultural Revolution and was sent to the countryside for forced re-education and hard labor, that appeal was personal. Her parents came from prosperous landowning families but joined the communist cause to help the poor and make China more fair.
“By the time they realized it’s a trap, [it’s] too late,” Van Fleet said.
Park, who escaped North Korea at 13, survived human trafficking in China and ultimately reached freedom in South Korea, grew up knowing an innocent remark could endanger an entire family for eight generations.
“I never owned myself when I was in North Korea,” Park said.
Van Fleet described control over work, food, marriage, information and thought. “But worst of all is control of your mind, and then control of your speech,” she said. “I never had an original thought.”
Morson explained that under Leninism, “The Party cannot be wrong. There is no moral standard above the Party.” Even compassion could become dangerous: “It might make you hesitate to kill a class enemy, so you must get rid of it.”
What Freedom Requires
The discussion also confronted why communism and socialism continue to attract younger generations with no firsthand experience of their consequences.
“Freedom, as important as it is, is not enough,” Dillon said. “You have to have the courage and moral clarity to advance the truth and push back on the bad ideas.”
Park offered an even more fundamental warning: “How do you fight to be free if you don’t [even] know you’re a slave?”
“It’s so important for us to have the courage to tell the truth so we do not lose the truth ever,” she said.
What Christianity Offers in Its Place
President Moreno-Riaño returned to the evening’s central theme: How can Christians take “the beauty, truth, and goodness of God and the gospel seriously and publicly” — not as “silent, private piety,” but “actually out into the public”?
Dillon answered through the spiritual hunger of people made in God’s image: “You can be physically starved, and you can be spiritually starved and robbed of goodness, truth, and beauty in your life.”
“We need to be prepared to provide that alternative,” he said — one that “defends and affirms and upholds truth, goodness, and beauty in the face of the darkness.”
Under Mao, Van Fleet said, Mao’s Little Red Book functioned as “our Bible” and Mao was praised as a savior.
“It is not just an economic theory. It is not just an ideology,” she said. “Communism, Marxism is a counterfeit of Christianity, and our battle is spiritual.”
What Students Carry Forward
Cornerstone Student Body President AJ Dykstra (’27) closed with a student’s perspective on the evening.
“One of the things I’m grateful for as a student at Cornerstone University is that we’re willing to engage in conversations like this,” he said. “We don’t shy away from the difficult questions of life. In fact, we welcome them. We are able to analyze them seriously, wrestle with them honestly, and look at them from a Biblical worldview, knowing that our foundation is in Jesus Christ.”
His takeaway: “Ideas matter.” He challenged students to carry the conversation into the world and “be a light unto the world for God.”
Experience the full exchange: Why Not Communism? Wisdom Conversation
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Leading up to Wisdom Conversations, the event’s focus reached national audiences including:
- Fox News Digital’s “North Korean Defector Issues Stark Warning About America Ahead of Christian University’s Anti-Communism Event”
- Fox Business’ “North Korean Defector: Students Have ‘No Clue’ What Socialism Does When Implemented in Real Life”
- President Moreno-Riaño’s Fox News op-ed, “I Escaped Communism. America Must Not Ignore the Urgent Warning Signs”
