Marxism is not a dogma, but rather, a science - an ever-evolving rubric for analyzing economics, politics, and sociology.  Marx's own works - and those that came after, expanding the Marxian tradition - seek to explain the world, not through the lens of Great Men or Great Ideas, but rather, through the humble act of labor.

 

The core question of any civilization being: who toils?  Who benefits?  And what social mechanisms are in place to maintain that status quo?

 

Religion, on the other hand, tends to operate within the realm of ideas.  Of abstraction.

 

Christian Communists are often quick to point out that those referring to religion as the "opiate of the masses" are stripping that particular quote of its original context.  However, there are few who can reconcile the materialist nature of the Marxist scientific tradition with any faith at all.

 

So let's do that.

 

My immediate response to any accusation that Christianity is incompatible with liberatory politics, is to cite a catalog of historical examples from the egalitarian theology of John Ball and the Peasant Revolt of 1381 that it inspired, to the Diggers, to John Brown, to religious resistance movements during WW2, to Martin Luther King, Jr., to Archbishop Oscar Romero, to the scores of priests who held leadership positions in the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, and prominent government positions after that revolution was won, to the Christians for National Liberation (CNL) waging war against the American puppet government in the Philippines (alongside the Maoist insurgency) as we speak.

 

One can certainly make a case for the necessity of liberation theology in future cultural revolutions - especially in predominantly Christian societies.

 

But that doesn't answer the spiritual question that burns at a lot of comrades of faith.

 

For those who feel an internal conflict between their materialist Marxism, and their faith, I would like to pose a few simple questions.  (This is going to sound silly, but bear with me).

 

Does the Earth revolve around the sun? Does life evolve and adapt according to the material conditions that organisms live in?  Does physics...you know...exist?

 

Despite the loud protestations of  anti-science fundamentalist kooks, most American Christians do not believe that the sciences are in conflict with their faith.

 

Why? 

 

Because there's an entire culture to back up the reconcilability of these ideas.  There's real support - especially in liberal and progressive circles.

 

In such social circles, Christians take it for granted that these ideas can exist harmoniously with one another.

 

Not so for Marxism.

 

To be a Marxist in America is to reject a lifetime of bourgeoisie propaganda.  To be a Marxist and Christian in America is to do all of that amidst a largely atheistic left.

 

Rather than advocate for echo chambers, however - rather than merely looking to one another for support and social validation - the dissonance between faith and dialectical materialism deserves an honest, and thorough examination.

 

Antonio Gramsci, Marxist theorist and organizer, wrote from behind the walls of a prison in fascist Italy, that people in modernity - whether they like to admit it or not - instinctually recognize the contradictions within Christianity itself - that, if somebody were to actually attempt to adhere to all of the Catholic tenets at once, they would be fundamentally insane. 

 

Even in the absence of Marxist critique, within modern Christianity itself, there are conflicting worldviews already at war here - the reason, of course, being that the Bible was written by people living under vastly different conditions than our own.   A different understanding of the physical universe.  A different political economy.  Different family structures.  Different ideas of what constitutes medicine. 

 

The vast majority of Christendom - at least those living in the developed world - has fundamentally subjugated elements of their faith to the sciences, (even when they pretend not to).  And every last one of us has subjugated our faith to our secular understanding of how the world works (for better or worse). 

 

In short, we already interpret scripture around fact, rather than the other way around.  And that's healthy.

 

However, I'd also argue that in the case of Marx, Engels, and "scientific socialism," we don't have to do that at all.

 

Because Jesus' ministry was not seeking to explain natural forces, but rather, was fundamentally humanist.  Jesus Christ Himself put liberation of the people above all things.  He put the material needs of the hungry, the sick, the infirm, and the poor far above theological ideas that were no longer serving their original social function - even in His own time.  

 

This is what set Jesus at war with dogmatic factions of His own faith.  This is what made him a threat to the Romans. 

 

The Kingdom of God - as abstract of an idea as any - still has a concrete reality.  The first will be the last and the last will be the first.

 

Blessed are the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure of heart, the persecuted, (and...well, everybody but those bastards in charge, if we're being perfectly honest).

 

In order to carry out that vision - in order to live the Kingdom of God - you need to deconstruct the society in which you live.  You need to figure out who's oppressing whom.  You need to provide for those without.  You need to help organize them around a cause - an aim to change the material conditions of civilization itself.

 

This is the core of Jesus's entire ministry. Serving the people.

 

Not only is our faith compatible with Marxist materialism, it demands of us radical, material action.