THE relationship between religion and Marxism has historically been an antagonistic one, with the former (at least with respect to its hierarchy) typically siding with the interests of the ruling class.

Organised religion helped legitimise and strengthen the position of society’s elites by espousing ideas that justified inequality as God’s will or which promised the poor and downtrodden a reward in the afterlife.

Such heavenly promises served to mollify proletarian resentment about their earthly oppression while duping them into accepting the status quo as part of a divine being’s master plan. Karl Marx wrote: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”

Several decades later famed Swedish-American song-writer and union activist Joe Hill captured this concept in his 1911 song Preacher and Slave with the sardonic words: 

“…Work and Pray (Work and Pray)
Live on hay (live on hay)
You'll get pie in the sky when you die.”

While Christianity was used as a tool for keeping the poor in their place, ironically, such actions go against its very tenets. Like many religions, at its heart Christianity advocates for social justice and helping those in need.

The Bible quotes Jesus as saying: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” and “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” Indeed, Jesus had much to say about the rich and the corrupt rulers of his day, as well as those who placed their faith in wealth. Unsurprisingly, his revolutionary ideas attracted the attention and wrath of religious leaders and the Judean ruling class.

Over millennia, many Christians have performed good works helping the poor and standing up for justice. This desire to empower the oppressed classes was embodied in the liberation theology movement that was born within the Catholic countries of Latin America in the 1960s and sought a “break from an elitist notion of the church and the return of control to the people.”

Peruvian-born Gustavo Gutierrez, who studied medicine before becoming a priest, is considered the founder of this movement which called upon the Catholic church to intercede in civic and political matters and advocate for and liberate the poor and oppressed. The movement’s radical and arguably leftist ideas did not find favour among elements of the church hierarchy and can be summarised in the following quote from Fr Gutierrez:

“But the poor person does not exist as an inescapable fact of destiny. His or her existence is not politically neutral, and it is not ethically innocent. The poor are a by-product of the system in which we live and for which we are responsible. They are marginalised by our social and cultural world. They are the oppressed, exploited proletariat, robbed of the fruit of their labour and despoiled of their humanity. Hence the poverty of the poor is not a call to generous relief action, but a demand that we go and build a different social order.”

Other religions also call upon their adherents to live in a socially and morally responsible way. For example, the Torah teaches the values of justice and the need to behave ethically towards the downtrodden. In recent years Jews were disproportionately involved in the struggles against racial injustice as part of the US civil rights movement, the fight against South Africa’s apartheid system, and more recently against the occupation and many forms of oppression taking place in Palestine. Islam too mandates almsgiving as one of its Five Pillars, requiring followers to give 2.5 per cent of their annual wealth to the poor, while the philosophy of Islamic socialism (a merger of socialist and theistic ideas) took root across several countries within the Muslim world during the 20th century.

Christianity and other major religions have been misused to provide justification for committing atrocities, oppressing minority groups, and censoring or killing critics. Yet the same can be said with respect to certain “socialist” or “communist” regimes that betrayed the working class and replaced one set of oppressors with another.

Taken to extremes, both religion and Marxism require the individual to submit to the will of a higher unchallengeable authority and operate as part of a collective without exercising free will, instead of liberating and empowering them as these systems ought.

The late giant of the labour movement Tony Benn said: “It is wholly wrong to blame Marx for what was done in his name, as it is to blame Jesus for what was done in his.” Indeed, much violence and oppression has been carried out in the name of both religion and socialism/communism by those who do not understand the tenets of either. Arguably, both religion and Marxism can bring out the best or the worst in humanity.

Though it maybe be controversial to say, in some ways the Marxist is braver than the follower of religion. The latter believes they will go to heaven if they keep the faith and practice good works — this perhaps motivates them to do so. The Marxist may not believe that fighting the class struggle will lead to a reward in the afterlife yet fights nonetheless to make the world a better place.

As someone who follows, albeit not dogmatically, both religious and socialist paths, I have at times found myself frustrated with one or the other while noting that both advocate similar messages yet also harbour similar pitfalls and dangers.

Overall though I’ve had no problems reconciling both and find their arguments complementary. Christianity and socialism have more in common than perhaps each likes to think and both oppose the selfishness and callousness associated with capitalism. Both promote a sense of responsibility to others, whereas capitalism does not and has no higher power to fear (be it a supreme being or the proletariat). Socialism can help purify religion from superstition and stolid hierarchical structures whereas religion can add meaning and hope to those undertaking the class struggle.

Whether we say, “On Earth as it is in heaven” or “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!” let’s work together to build a better world and purify it from the individualism, selfishness and exploitation inherent in capitalism and its most aggressive form imperialism.