Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 16:48:31 -0400 From: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor) Subject: Christianity and Communism? To: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)
[Note from Matthew Gaylor: This is excerpted via the Communist Party United States of America's online list Communist-Party@yahoogroups.com. See http://www.cpusa.org. I'm sure this will provoke a response, but I'd entertain a rebuttal if someone were so inclined.]
Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 22:55:21 EDT From: petre007@aol.com Subject: Christianity and Communism
I believe that we communists should embrace Christianity, as the Christian doctrine favors communism. We may be able to win more support for the party if religion was not frowned upon. And we can use their own scripture as evidence that god wants humans to be communist.
What Evidence, you say?
The communist nature of original Christianity is directly evident in the Bible, not merely to be extrapolated from a common aim for utopia.
We all know the story of the rich young man who asks Jesus "what must I do to be saved?", and how Jesus, after speaking of the following the law, goes on to say: Matthew 19:21 Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give the proceeds to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
Jesus goes on to speak about how hard it is for the rich man to enter heaven, because he is unwilling to give up his personal riches. His instructions to the rich man were taken literally by the early church:
Acts 4:32-35 The group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one said that anything that belonged to him was his own, but everything was held in common. With great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on them all. For there was no one needy among them, because those who were owners of land or houses were selling them and bringing the proceeds from the sales and placing them at the apostles feet. The proceeds were distributed to each, as anyone had need.
This group ownership of all money and property is obviously identifiable as socialist in the extreme - communism. Individual property is entirely abolished - and anyone clinging on to the idea was treated most harshly - remember what happens to Ananias and Sapphira in the account following this description? The entire idea of charity is in fact leftist - the equitable redistribution of wealth by force of law (divine will expressed as church law in this case).
The church continued to uphold these ideals for many centuries - people wishing to be saved were encouraged to give all they possibly could to the church, though the church no longer insisted on them giving all their assets away. The monastic orders almost all upheld the ideal of personal poverty. The ownership of wealth was considered evil - making money was not considered an appropriate goal for the righteous man.
Today, of course, socialism or communism are often completly absent from the christian church. The prosperity doctrine has swept most of the western world, bringing a very right-wing approach to christianity, though in europe some bastions of old-style christianity still hold out in the form of christian socialist parties.
-Peter
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