Religion is the "single greatest obstacle to the Communist criminal conspiracy today," Herbert A. Philbrick, author of I Led Three Lives, told the Divinity School Forum last night. Deep religious faith, he said, "is keeping the spirit of resistance alive behind the Iron Curtain."

Philbrick asserted that though people often worry about the possibility of World War III, "we are in it right now, this very moment." The weapons are those of "diplomacy, trade and economics, religion, sabotage and espionage," he said, and "the war is being waged on every front every day by a ruthless and mighty enemy, which brags: 'we will bury you'."

The speaker explained that his career with the Communist Party as a secret F.B.I. agent, began "right here in Cambridge, when I innocently joined a front organization." Front groups, he said, are "seemingly innocent organizations, like the former Cambridge Youth Council," which may have a majority of well-intentioned members, but are controlled by the Communists. "There are just a few vultures, but many victims."

Harvard University, "because it is a great educational institution, was singled out by the Party as a prime target for infiltration," explained Philbrick, who called this a "back-handed compliment." But the speaker cautioned at some length against condemning a man just because of past membership in a front organization. "There was once a man named Senator McCarthy," he remarked, "for whom there were only good guys and bad guys, and this was a very bad mistake."