September 9, Communists were burning flags in Chicago. They were “trying that in a large town” in their protests at a Jason Aldean concert in the Windy City. Aldean is best known for his hit “Try That in a Small Town.”

FoxNews.com reports, “The protesters were raising awareness of RevCom (Revolutionary Communist Party), which believes in creating a Marxist revolution in America, calling the USA ‘the belly of the beast.’”

The idea of a communist revolution in America, “the belly of the beast,” might well seem far-fetched. But consider the incredible “progress” that the Marxists have made in this country in the last several decades.

Dr. Carol M. Swain used to teach at Princeton and also at Vanderbilt Law School. In an interview with D. James Kennedy Ministries, she mentioned some of the communists' objectives for the United States.

Dr. Swain told our viewers: “I’m sure you’re familiar with the book that Cleon Skousen wrote in 1958 called The Naked Communist. That book had near its appendix 45 current communist goals. Those goals were read into the Congressional record in 1963. If you read through those goals, many of them have been accomplished, and one was to take over a political party. [Others were to] discredit the FBI, to use race as a wedge issue, to take over the public schools, and you go down the list and they’ve accomplished almost every goal that they’ve set out to accomplish.”

Swain added, “And I think we see the implementation of those communist goals and yes, it’s cultural Marxism and it’s all about destroying our society.”

Anyone who doubts her should actually read the goals. Here are just a few.

Goal 27: “Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with ‘social’ religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a ‘religious crutch.’”

Many of the churches in America have gone woke, which effectively means they have replaced the Gospel, by which Jesus saves individuals, and then they impact society with a message of social salvation that teaches it is systemic societal ills that need redemption.

Goal 28: “Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of ‘separation of church and state.’"

The First Amendment declares “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” But beginning in 1947 and then especially in the 1960s and 1970s, the Supreme Court changed the understanding of “no establishment” (meaning no established church at the federal level) to meaning essentially a separation of God and government—something the founding fathers would not have agreed with.

Today, the public schools have become, for the most part, secular wastelands because of the effective banishment of God and school prayer. Our history books have been rewritten, and God has been erased. School prayer is out. The metal detectors are in.

Goal 29: “Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a world-wide basis.”

The Constitution is even being called “trash” by some modern thinkers. But would-be immigrants who risk their lives to come into the United States illegally argue with their feet that it is anything but trash.

Goal 30: “Discredit the American founding fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the ‘common man.”"

Who would have thought that a nation that celebrated the bicentennial in 1976 so profusely would have developed so much contempt for the founding fathers in just a few decades since?

In a few years, we’ll come to the 250th anniversary of America. Will that be an occasion of celebration or an occasion of gnashing of teeth and more statue-toppling?

The sacrifices of the founding fathers are well documented. They said in the Declaration of Independence that they were trusting in God as they made a full-scale commitment to this cause: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Some of them died in support of our liberty. Many of them had their property destroyed. They became specific targets of the British torch during the war.

What was the point of their cause? Self-rule under God. That phrase summarizes the American experiment.

But communism cannot countenance the idea of God. Nor can communism allow for self-rule.

It’s scary to see how successful the communists have been so far in achieving their goals. But as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a different context: America is in decline, but it is not inevitable.

Our prayer is that God would revive the work of His hands in this great nation.