Why is socialism anti-Christian?

This is a good question with no easy answer, I think.

Here are 4 partial answers, though:

1. Christianity in Medieval and Renaissance Europe was highly integrated with the existing social structure, which in most of Europe was feudal.

Under feudalism, as one Christian bishop wrote in around 1100 AD, a dominant school of thought was that God had ordinained the existence of different social classes, each with a different duty: namely, to "fight, work, and pray."

The feudal nobles had the [supposed] duty "to fight."

The [supposed] duty of the clergy was "to pray."

And the duty of the peasantry -- as this Catholic prelate saw it -- was "to work," and to support the two other social classes, the military aristocracy and the clergy.

In short, this medieval bishop saw Christianity mandating a highly stratified and unequal social order in which the peasants had a duty to be exploited - supposedly for God's glory.

Unsurprisingly there were many movements of medieval Christians who challenged this notion while advocating something resembling the "primitive communism" of the early church.

The challengers included some Catholics who stayed under the leadership of Rome -- notably St. Francis and some of his followers -- as well some Christian groups who were deemed heretical by the Church and violently suppressed.

As historian Norman Cohn writes in "The Pursuit of the Millennium," the "heretical" religious communist movements of the Middle Ages included the Waldensians in the late 1100s, the Flagellants of the 1300s and early 1400s, some of the Lollard priests associated with the English Peasants Revolt of 1381 , and the Hussites in the early 1400s.

Later on, as the Renaissance took hold, Christian communist movements with an explicitly anti-Catholic edge included the revolutionary Anabaptists of the early 1500s in Germany and the "Diggers" and "Fifth Monarchy Men" who emerged during the Puritan Revolution in England in the mid-1600s. There were other Christian communist groups, too.

The "pro-capitalist" ethic of mainstream Christianity, I think, emerged at least in part in reaction against the revolutionary communism of the heretical movements.

The lower-class heretics, some with revolutionary ideas, challenged the legitimacy and even the existence of the Church, and naturally the Church fought back -- eventually to the extent of labeling egalitarianism itself "anti-Christian."

2. Many historians think a second source of "anti-socialist" Christian thought is Calvinism.

Or at least that was the view of the famous sociologist Max Weber, author of "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism."

Weber's argument isn't easy to summarize, but basically he holds that Calvinist doctrines about delayed gratification and hard work as a "religious calling" inspired many Calvinists -- not to give away their money to the poor, but to work ceaselessly at making more money without spending it.

In addition, like the Good Steward in some of the gospel parables, these Calvinist Protestants made a habit of reinvesting their money for the future.

The early Calvinists didn't mostly start out wanting to get rich, Weber thought. But their habits of working hard, scrimping on personal consumption, and investing money for the future gradually turned them into successful capitalists.

As successful capitalists, but with "Christian" ideas, they then naturally attributed their economic success to God's will, and came to feel that anyone who proposed to take away their wealth was "anti-Christian."

3. This Calvinist idea about the religious merit of money-making was given an added boost in England following the restoration of the monarchy following the Puritan Revolution.

why?

Because Baptists, Quakers, Unitarians and other "religious dissenters" - Christians who rejected the Church of England -- were basically banned by English law from 1689 through around 1830 from entering politics, engaging in many professions and even studying at Oxford and Cambridge, England's two great Anglican universities.

In response, some highly religious English dissenters sought careers in business, as the only career path open to them, and some were extremely successful at it.

Then the Dissenters, having helped launch the Industrial Revolution, came to feel in the 1800s that capitalist enterprise was a religious calling, and that all attempts to have the government interefere with it were anti-capitalist, not to mention "anti-freedom."

I think an intellectual hangover from that era still inspires many conservative American Christians today

4. A fourth explanation for the anti-socialist bias of many Christians today derives from the highly secular nature of the economic radicalism that has become popular since the French Revolution, I think.

Marx was explicitly atheist, so was the British utopian communist Robert Owen; so were most of the 19th century anarchists.

Some radicals -- eg Lenin -- even came to identify the Christian church with political reaction, and some Spanish anarchists by the 1930s were physically attacking churches.

Not surprisingly, many Christians returned the favor by attacked "godless communism" in turn.

But as you point out, Jesus and the early Christians probably would have favored socialists & communists more than capitalists. Many medieval Christians outside of the Vatican would have done the same.

Socialism And Christianity

Jesus is of no particular political persuasion. One could argue otherwise but that would negate the very fact Jesus came to set up a kingdom not of this world. Let me tell you something, this society--America with it's democracy and captialism-- could work much better if Christians were actually doing what they're supposed to do with in their own communities. Christians were to share the burdens of everyone in their congregations. They did not build huge edificies and run them like corporations today. No, they cared for their people and they had money for everyone's needs. Families were taking care of their own and faithfully giving every single thing to the kingdom of God. It was a rare time of Christian brotherly love. If anyone had a need, it was met by the bretheren. IF this were to be the standard and practice of all those in America who claim to be Christians there would be little need for huge social outreaches and extensive child care. Women would raise children at home and father's would work hard to take care of their families and their financial responsibilities. No one would be greedy of gain because they would recognize the very fact that this life is temperal and their rewards in heaven would be eternal. Socialism is not living in Christian brotherly love but it is an enforced standard of living upon a peoples that everyone has the right to be equally poor. Remember, even the Christians in the Bible said, 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12, "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread."

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RE:

Why is socialism anti-Christian?

Hi all,

There's a question that has been bothering me for a while. In recent months we've seen a lot of "anti-socialism" protests. Many of these protesters, perhaps the majority, seem to oppose socialism on religious grounds; many even explicitly say that they're protesting...

Socialism, or any other form of government, is not necessarily anti-Christian unless it's leaders declare it to be. Christians do and have lived under all forms of government. The United States form of government has provided for the free exercise of any religion one choices, at least our founding fathers saw it that way, thus the preference for our form of government.

Hi kagmi,

The early Christians, disciples, apostles, did live collectively and in a socialist manner. Christianity and socialism are highly compatible with each other. Intellectual honestly cannot be gainsaid on this point.

America is a half-cracked place. Americans are not particularly intellectually honest. They are self-interest true.

They cleave not to truth but to their own self-interests.

America, thank goodness, is still more or less a capitalist nation. So that does create a quandry. Muscular Christians overcome such quandries by just asserting loudly that Christ was a capitalist just like them and moving on. They put their hands over their ears, they scream adenoidally "Christ was not a Commie" and they invent 739 different Christian sects, including Rev Ike (money loves me), and the Church of the Flaming Sword of Las Vegas Nevada (Dr. Guido Sarducci's church, and you can still get the mitre and scepter set for $11.99 COD). Don't forget the Chruch of voodoo rolling of Wasilla AK. In my little town, every time 17 men get together on a street corner, a new protestant sect is born. They get a table, a piece of cloth, and a sign to put out on the street. They put up the name of their Pastor, duly elected by 9 men (majority rules).

Because Christianity is ideologically compatible with socialism in the Paris Commune sense, that does not imply that any actual socialist or communist state has been highly supportive of Christianity. USSR was called the place of Godless Communism, and that was basically correct for 75 years. Today the antipathy toward the Church is a bit less. But the most socialist countries, East Germany, Sweden, Finland, etc are not particularly Church friendly, the notable exception being France, which is.

The Nazis who were National Socialists did not like the Church. They like the Chinese today wanted the state to be the People's True Church and focus of total life dedication.

To make the matter even more complicated we have the fact that the men who built America: Ford, Firestone, Westinghouse, Edison, Bell, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, etc were most Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians. Bigtime capitalists -- bigtime Christians.

The Constitution was written by Deists (atheists, like me) and it was called novus ordem seculorem -- the New Secular Order. You have the eye (of the Deist God) looking out from the top of the pyramid of the state. The state is the novus ordem -- and there's a wall between it and any church -- so sayeth the First Amendment. It replaces the ordem sanctificatorem -- the orders designed to make human life more holy.

The eye on the pyramid could just as well be a whale's eye. In that case, it might refer to Leviathan (the whale) a book by Thomas Hobbes on which Madison, Jefferson, Jay, Franklin, Adams, and Hamilton based many of the ideas that became core concepts of the U.S. Constitution. Also Locke's Second Treatise of Government plays a role. Also, in all fairness I should tell you that John Adams is considered by many to have been a christian (not a deist).

Locke and Hobbes were capitalists for practical reasons and not out of extensions of their spiritual insights. In this they were succeeded by Adam Smith, who advised all the Founding Fathers for years on a daily basis. Locke said that if you take away a man's property, you take his life. He also said, no man will plant a field unless he knows who will reap the harvest from that field.

In the main we adopted capitalism as a means to productivity and the relief of man's estate, and not as a source or consequence of spiritual enlightment. Wealth was thought to be a good thing. Poverty was thought to lead to misery and a bestial style of existence unworthy of human beings. So the Founders were not like St. Francis in that respect, or like the Prince Gautama Siddhardtha, the Buddha, or like my own teacher Lao Tzu, who lived a very modest life.

Any insight = appreciated -- so maybe you will find some insight here. The question is quite complex, as is our history on this matter. The short answer is that Americans have a very high capacity for denial, intellectual dishonesty, self-delusion, and hypocrisy, so we can be pretty split-minded on this question without experiencing any cognitive dissonance. The fact that you have experienced some, enough to use up 5 points inquiring about it, is a good sign. As a nation, thinking would not necessarily be bad for us, although we run from it as if it were the H1N1 virus. Thinking is good. Your question is a valid one.

With socialism the government controls everything, where the bible says that man has free will. Also, socialism results in forced charity, where the bible wants true charity from each person.

For some reason American Christians have transposed their religious ideals and our national ideals into some weird monstrosity. I have literally heard of some groups saying that Jesus wrote the constitution. It's quite scary, really.

socialism is fine... but has a tendency to mandate controls over religious freedom and choice

If Christians were true to the Scriptures, they'd be communist. The first disciples were! In Acts, it says "they had all things in common", which is the very definition of communism. It also says they gave "each according to his ability" and received "each according as he had need". Those two clauses were combined into a maxim by French socialists, and quoted in the Communist Manifesto as "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need". Marx gets credit for it but he was merely quoting it.