Polish communists tacitly tolerated members practicing religion and opposing the party

Evidence

Within a decade, official Polish party recruitment policies stopped favoring proletarian origins, and party workers became increasingly better educated by the 1970s. Moreover, the party purged far fewer of its members than the Czech party. By the 1970s, a tacit understanding emerged between party members and their leaders, so that the vast majority of party members attended religious services, baptized their children, and even openly joined the opposition. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 259

Categorization

• XREF: Vivid case of ideological conviction coexisting with contrary practice — members attended church, baptized children, joined opposition while remaining party members — feeding the reader’s professed-conviction-vs-actual-bias analysis. — connects to: Polish communist party members themselves joined the opposition en masse — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 255; Communist secularism tolerated dissent less than Christendom or Islam; Anti-church and pro-abortion stances, not economics, best predicted support for Poland’s ex-communists — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 860 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Communist secularism tolerated dissent less than Christendom or Islam #complicates (0.72)
• Anti-church and pro-abortion stances, not economics, best predicted support for Poland’s ex-communists #qualifies (0.72) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 860
• Communist states functioned as a secular religion with its own church #complicates (0.70) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 330