1967 ‘Star Trek’ episode analogizes Light of the Gospel

In the “Star Trek: The Original Series” episode entitled “Operation – Annihilate!” (Season 1, Episode 29, April 13, 1967), the USS Enterprise crew discovers that a pattern of mass insanity has been spreading in nearly a straight line through several inhabited star systems in the sector of the galaxy they are patrolling, destroying the civilizations there. Deneva, with more than a million inhabitants, is the next star system in line, and no communications had been received from the planet for a year.

Upon arriving at Deneva, the Enterprise crew finds that mass insanity has come to that planet. The cause was seemingly indestructible single-celled flying parasites that hid in the shadows away from the sunlight. They sting their victims, leaving behind strands of tissue like tentacles that rapidly spread and take over the nervous system. The parasites, using intense pain to control their hosts, act as a hive mind and force them to build ships to spread to other planets, as they did in the previous ones.

Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy, while examining a sample of one of the parasites in the ship’s laboratory, discovered why they hid indoors in the shadows on Deneva: they were vulnerable to ultraviolet light. But there was not enough ultraviolet light coming from the sun to destroy the parasites. So Captain Kirk ordered that a network of satellites be set in synchronous orbit around the planet to flood the surface with ultraviolet light. As the light bathed the planet, the parasites began to dissolve and die, including those in the infected inhabitants, setting them free and unharmed.

Like the parasites in this “Star Trek” episode that used the arms and legs of their hosts to take over civilizations and pursue a dark agenda that included the destruction of those societies, the disciples of Karl Marx have sought as one of their main goals the infiltration of educational institutions to gain control of nations.

Louis Francis Budenz (1891-1972) was a member of the Communist Party USA, but in 1945 he renounced communism and became a vocal opponent of it and a whistleblower in governmental hearings. In his book “The Techniques of Communism” (1954), he wrote:

“In undermining a nation such as the United States, the infiltration of the educational process is of prime importance. The Communists have accordingly made the invasion of schools and colleges one of the major considerations in their psychological warfare designed to control the American mind.”

Marxist philosophers of the Frankfurt School that attached themselves to Columbia University in the early 1930s played a key role in the takeover of educational institutions in the United States through the students they indoctrinated and spread out like ever-expanding tentacles into society.

In his book “The Naked Communist” (1958), which describes communist strategies to gain control of society, former FBI agent W. Cleon Skousen included a list of 45 communist goals. This list was read into the Congressional Record on Jan. 10, 1963, by Rep. Albert S. Herlong Jr., D-Fla. Two of the goals included getting control of the schools and teachers’ unions and promoting pornographic publications to normalize sexual degeneracy and promiscuity.

Justin Walker, pastor of Salt and Light Baptist Church outside Louisville, Kentucky, was confronted with the results of these efforts in June 2021 when he took one of his daughters to a local public library to look for something for her to read. He was appalled at the graphic LGBTQ+ books being promoted for children.

Pastor Walker came to the realization that millions of children going to public schools in America regularly face this Marxist tactic of indoctrination from their teachers. Acting in accordance with Jesus’ description in the Sermon on the Mount of how His disciples are to be in the world (Matthew 5:13-16), from which his church was named, he sought to provide an alternative to this evil influence in the lives of his children and those in his community.

On Sept. 4, 2024, First Principles Academy, a K-6 donation-based, tuition-free Christian school, was established by Pastor Walker and his church to shine the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ onto its students along with teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. By pursuing a Christ-centered approach to learning, the school seeks to be a beacon of light honoring God and dispelling the darkness of Marxism and be an encouragement to other churches to do the same.

When Adam and Eve heeded the lies of Satan and sinned against God by eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, the sting of death entered them and spread out like tentacles to all humanity, causing our natural state to be that of separation from God and rebellion against Him (Genesis 3). Our sin nature takes hold of us and causes us to be recipients and exporters of pain, suffering, destruction and death.

Like the USS Enterprise that used a special kind of light to set free the people of Deneva by destroying the parasites that stung and enslaved them, God has provided His own Light to set free lost humanity from the sting of sin and eternal separation from the fullness of life He grants as a free gift.

“Jesus said, ‘I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.'” (John 8:12)

Jesus Christ, the giver and sustainer of life, freely grants reconciliation with God and eternal life to all who trust in Him. He is the unquenchable light that dissolves and blots out our sins and continues to shine through His church to scatter the darkness of satanic philosophies like Marxism that cause enslavement, destruction and death.