The Descent of the Iron Curtain

On March 5th, 1946, Winston Churchill delivered an address at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. The following is an excerpt from that address...


"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an "iron curtain" has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow."


His speech met with much opposition, even in the West, as people still viewed the Soviets as an ally who had helped to defeat a great enemy in the very recent past - completely unaware that Stalin was every bit as evil and murderous as Hitler. Or, perhaps in the long release of breath after the war's end, they preferred to remain oblivious to it.


Churchill was seen as a troublemaker. All he was doing was acknowledging a great evil for what it was. An Iron Curtain, designed to keep information out and people in, brutally oppressing the poor souls whose only crime was to reside in a land dominated by the communist system of government.


President Roosevelt, to assuage fears concerning Stalin, had stated in 1945...


"Stalin is not that kind of man. . . He doesn't want anything but security for his country, and I think that if I give him everything I possibly can, and ask nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won't try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace."


He should've listened to Churchill. Stalin was a butcher who wanted nothing more than to fill his own coffers, even if it came at the expense of the blood of not just his enemies, but his own people. Stalin wanted to expand his territory, dominate weaker nations, and tap into their resources, building an empire governed by state control - control which was quite often brutal. Stalin had promised the West that he would allow the occupied nations of eastern Europe the "right to self-determination". History has proven those words empty save for the deceit they contained, as he imposed his own determinations on those nations, by force, behind the shield of the Iron Curtain.


When you get to the bottom line of it all, the worth of the people trapped inside was measured only by what they could produce for the communist system. The fact that attempts to escape often, perhaps even usually, resulted in death prove that point. "You'll produce for us or you'll produce for no one" seems to be the message sent.


Everything on the other side of the Iron Curtain was portrayed as capitalistic evil, the social boogeyman, where very few prospered while the vast majority floundered. In truth, this was a deceptive and diversive tactic to cast the view of a dominated people away from the fact that this was the reality of their OWN situation. Create fear that what was outside was far less pure and far more evil than what was inside, while never letting them see the outside to judge for themselves. Isolation. Control of environment and information. Control of dialog. Communist propaganda. It all adds up to a dysfunctional and abusive control of lives. Meanwhile, along the Iron Curtain, physical barriers were erected, minefields established, electronic fences, much manpower to serve as guards...not to keep people out, but to keep people in.


I'm saddened to say this has been my experience with patriocentricity. Through the patriocentric movement, an Iron Curtain has descended around the borders of entire families. All of these things parallel.


A) Like Stalin, the leaders of the patriocentric movement claim that they don't make personal decisions for those subordinated to them and have only the best and most selfless intentions for invading their lives.
B) Like communism, a person never makes a clean escape from the Iron Curtain of patriarchy. There's always a price to pay for not sharing the family vision. Many of my readers are paying that price as we speak. Many families, regardless of "intentions", will willingly, even if unwittingly, take steps to damage the hearts, minds, and lives of adult children...just to keep them in the system.
C) Like those in communist systems, the only crime committed by the children of patriarchy is being born into a patriocentric home. They have no real choices when the system is functioning ideally.
D) Like communist propaganda, patriocentrics promote distorted worldviews of evil, ungodly society, promote an idea of personal sinfulness, weakness, and probability of personal failure outside the system, promote outside opposition as the enemy, promote inside opposition as outright rebellion or the influence of modern feminism and psychology, if not demonic influence.
E) Like those who were feared to be on the verge of attempting escape from communist systems being sent to re-indoctrination camps, in patriarchal movements and families, high-risk adults are sent to other patriocentrics to "get healthy", get their minds right, "hear from the Lord", and get "fixed".
F) Like those who actually managed to escape the Iron Curtain, those who leave patriarchal homes find themselves socially naive, often having to learn how to live and process the information now at their disposal. Sometimes the culture shock is overwhelming.
G) Like communism, modern Western society is the enemy that patriarchy wages war with and hopes to choke out.




On January 5th, 1968, a reformer named Alexander Dubcek came to power in the nation of Czechoslovakia, a nation which found itself behind the Iron Curtain. Dubcek introduced decentralizations of government and economy, bringing about personal freedoms that hadn't been enjoyed since before the Iron Curtain descended. Freedom of the press, freedom of information, et cetera. This brought about a brief period of social and financial prosperity (relatively speaking) that became known as the Prague Spring. The Prague Spring produced many reknowned cultural and artistic endeavors, including several famous pieces of music, as well as the Milan Kundera novel, "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." Many well-known plays have made reference to the Prague Spring. The people didn't entirely leave the ideas of socialism and communism. They attempted to leave Soviet control. Two very different things.


The Soviet communist motherland didn't like this turn of events. At all. This provides a glimpse of the true heart.


In the Spring of 2008, my ex-fiancee, against her father's very adament, threat of estrangement-laden, and abusively expressed wishes, flew across the country alone to spend time with me. It was probably the happiest period of both of our lives. She was introduced to things she'd never experienced, from culture and ideas, to music, to movies...to normal, healthy, liberated and guilt-free life. She flourished. She didn't leave Christ. She left patriarchal authority. Two very different things.


The patriarchal fatherland didn't like this turn of events. At all. This provides a glimpse of the true heart.


The Soviets responded to the Prague Spring by implementing action according to the Brezhnev Doctrine...


"When forces that are hostile to socialism try to turn the development of some socialist country towards capitalism, it becomes not only a problem of the country concerned, but a common problem and concern of all socialist countries."


The Soviets, and their puppet government allies in other Eastern bloc nations, sent 200,000 troops and 2,000 tanks into Czechoslovakia - to help them "get healthy", get their minds right, and get "fixed".


My former future father-in-law responded to his daughter's Prague Spring by implementing his own patriarchal version of the Brezhnev Doctrine ("I'm gonna fight this, and I'm not gonna play fair"), and over the following weeks, with increasing frequency, he and his patriarchal allies advanced on her life en masse like a Soviet offensive, cutting her off entirely from opposing influence - until she "got healthy", got her mind right, and got "fixed".


The most troubling thing about the parallels between communism and patriarchy is the utter lack of personal liberty behind the communist Iron Curtain and the sewn up veil of patriocentricity. Here's why it's so troubling...


"...Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."


So...What's missing?