Christianity and Socialism
Karl Marx, the father of communism, called religion “the opium of the people.” He also wrote, on another occasion, that “it is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but on the contrary it is their social existence that determines their consciousness.”
Marx believed that the communist revolution would change the supposedly malleable consciousness of men by changing their social existence. So how would men be changed under communism? Regarding religion specifically, Marx believed they would no longer have any need for “the opium of the people.” Marx was an atheist, and under communism he envisioned that everyone else would abandon their religion and become atheists as well. Of course, he could not have been more wrong.
Christians who support socialism should carefully consider Marx’s antipathy toward religion. After all, Marx (along with Frederick Engels) wrote The Communist Manifesto, the most famous of all socialist literature. The fact that this manifesto is called a Communist manifesto should not be misunderstood as diminishing its importance in the socialist canon. In fact, as Engels noted, the Manifesto was originally going to be called The Socialist Manifesto before the decision was made to change the title prior to publication.
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