Through out history, great civilizations have either been destroyed or transformed by religion. It the past, every empire that invaded or conquered another, would establish their “religion” as the norm. Sometimes, this would by violence as with the Muslims, other times it would be fairly peaceful, as with the Christians and the Roman Empire. That is not to say that some violence did not happen, but that is for others to debate. One of the keys to Gramsci’s formula is to subvert the moral order and this subversion is to target the religion of the bourgeois societies.

In order to achieve a socialist revolution in capitalist countries, Gramsci idea was to focus on, as Malachi Martin wrote, “corruption of their Christian cultural basis.” Martin continued, “Neither political penetration nor military superiority will bring the capitalist West to its knees. The Christian cultures of these countries are the ties that bind the people in all aspects of society.” Through there are differences in the debate between the many churches, it does come down to the fact, that America is a Judeo-Christian nation and it is this culture and history that binds us together as a nation. Martin continues,” Gramsci counsels his followers to join the capitalists in all aspects of life, from “their profession of ethical and religious goals” to their family needs and all social issues affecting their lives. But Gramsci had a catch, Malachi Martin explains: Gramsci admonished his followers to “let the entire effort be solely by man for man’s sake... Make sure man never repeats the famous cry of German philosopher Martin Heidegger: I know that only God can save us.”

In order to achieve this undoing of the “Christian culture”, Gramsci understood that it had to be done quietly, carefully and over a period of time. The key to this was stealth and a passive approach, which included the “infiltration” of various churches. Recently, Glenn Beck ( www.glennbeck.com ) touched on this infiltration with a caller on his radio show, when Glenn mentioned Liberation Theology to a caller. I don’t know if Glenn knew of Gramsci’s plan when he brought the subject up. However he did mention, the beginnings of this “social change” in South America, where the Catholic Church is the center point of social life.

There is a “school of theology “within Christianity referred to as Liberation theology. This theology emphasizes that the Christian mission is to bring justice to the poor and oppressed (social justice),. This is to be done through political activism. The theologians that preach this social justice consider sin the root source of poverty. This sin is the exploitation of capitalism and the class war by the rich against the poor.

These theologians use political theory, primarily Marxism, to help understand how to combat poverty. Although it is sometimes regarded as a form of Christian socialism and it has enjoyed widespread influence in Latin America. This Christian socialism has also become widespread within the black community in the form of “Black theology”

This form of liberation theology, Black theology, has its center the theme of the oppression of black people by white people. According to James H. Cone who developed what would be called Black liberation theology it came out of the "need for black people to define the scope and meaning of black existence in a white society”, and emerged in the last two decades in the wave of liberation movements as an expression of "black consciousness". Black theology is focused on the issues that blacks are confronted with on a daily basis. A well known believer in this is Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Many Americans may not have realized or even cared that religion in America was changing. This change came about very slowly and with a purpose. Many have gotten angry when the ACLU and other organizations “declared war on Christianity”. This war was for a purpose, it was to slowly destroy religion in America. If religion is destroyed in America, then the major tie that binds this great nation together, will, then in my humble opinion, lead to the downfall. The destruction of religion in America will also lead to the changing the popular consensus, the destruction of the traditional family, and existing social mores, and the transformation of the culture. All of these transformations are what Antonio Gramsci said would change a capitalist into a progressive-socialist –Marxist civil society. It is not only some of the churches that are using Gramsci’s his ideas to enact these changes, but there are others, some rich and powerful people and others serving within our government. These are what I refer to as the Shadow Menace