Archive: Fatal Attraction

The Seductive Promises of Socialism Have Subverted Our Concern for the Poor

Part One

by Clark H. Pinnock

We live in an era of the unprecedented expansion of the Christian movement throughout the world. Ours is a hopeful time of great opportunity for discipling the nations and making a significant impact upon cultures around the world, particularly in the direction of relief and development.

Disagreement accompanies that opportunity, though. Christians disagree on how believers should pursue the task of helping the poor (aside from acts of generous charity, on which we generally do not disagree). Ideology is dividing Christians from one another. In our search for answers to the problem of poverty some look to socialism and its constellation of ideas, while others have different recommendations. It would be pleasant to leave ideology aside and concentrate entirely upon “kingdom” issues, but that, sadly, is not possible. An ideology is basically a set of ideas which attempts to explain the world and suggests ways to change it for the better; an ideology can also trap and seduce us by blinding the mind and preventing it from seeing reality.[1]

To be blunt, I am troubled at the way in which our proper Christian concern for the poor has been unwisely routed along the tracks of collectivist economics. That long detour seriously jeopardizes the possibility of doing effective good and threatens to short-circuit well-meaning Christian intentions. If we are serious about “God’s preferential option for the poor” (to use the jargon of liberation theology), then it is neither wise nor prudent to side with an ideology which, as I will argue, has such a bad record in regard to reducing the misery of poor people.

A Sad Case of Ideological Entrapment

My argument is that our frequent lack of good judgment about poverty questions is rooted in an entrapment. Whenever the issue of ideological entrapment is raised some believers cite the Nazi “Christians” (or perhaps, to some, even the religious right in the United States) as examples of a bad tendency. But there is a very serious case of entrapment which few are willing to name: the tendency of a significant number of church leaders in the 20th century to tie the cause of God’s kingdom to the cause of communism or socialism in some milder form.

This entangling alliance can be compared without much exaggeration to the alignment in Germany of the kingdom of God with the Nazi ideology.[2] What makes the comparison appropriate is the fact that the Marxist movement is not just a failure as a self-proclaimed revolutionary force in improving the lot of the poor, but it is also a unique historical evil even in the 20th century which has witnessed many evils on a massive scale.

Marxism has led to the starvation and murder of millions of victims on the very borders of the West, while many of our political and intellectual leaders and even some church leaders have looked the other way and prattled on about the bright new hope of socialism. Alexander Solzhenitsyn and many others have documented the torture and oppression carried out by socialist dictators against their own unfortunate peoples. Between fascism and communism there seems to be no practical difference.[3]

There is a danger of getting sidetracked into telling the dismal story of the romance of certain churchmen with Marxism and the left in general; what we really need to focus on is the foolish act of endorsing collectivist economic practice which has harmed the poor so much. We have to see that socialism is the great political myth of the 20th century and that its appeal is precisely mythical and not empirical. No one could be attracted to socialism on empirical grounds because evidence of its successes does not exist. The attraction is the seductive appeal which myth has for the human imagination.[4]

Briefly, then, let’s itemize some of the pieces of evidence which reveal ideological entrapment. Before 1960 support for Marxism was visible in what Paul Hollander calls political tourism.[5] Hewlett Johnson (the pathetic and amusing Red Dean of Canterbury), along with many intellectuals such as Bernard Shaw, Arthur Koestler and Malcolm Muggeridge, traveled to the Soviet Union in the 30s, at the very time Stalin was consolidating his total power and beginning to liquidate millions under his iron rule. They came back to the West singing the praises of the great socialist revolution in Russia. Their desire to believe the seductive promises of the revolutionary myth robbed them of practically every vestige of critical reason.[6]

Since 1960 the situation has deteriorated further. Christians on the left no longer praise Stalin, but some continue to applaud the ideology on which he based his murderous power. So-called liberation theologians and church leaders proclaim an alliance between Christians and Marxists and see socialism as the way to move beyond class-based society.[7] Miranda, admittedly more radical than most, goes so far as to equate communism and Christianity.[8]

True, the various liberationist writers usually take pains to say they find fault with some dimensions of Marxism, but their criticisms are never so radical as to prevent them from supporting Marxist revolutions. In their view no matter what is wrong with socialism, capitalism is worse. In line with this thinking the World Council of Churches has assisted Marxist guerillas in Africa under the guise of combating racism. In a brilliant display of double standards, these same churchmen are silent about human rights violations in Cuba, Ethiopia and Angola while complaining bitterly about infractions in South Africa and El Salvador. Political pilgrims are currently flocking to Nicaragua to see the latest revolution firsthand.[9]

Some Christians support a very ugly reality in a less direct way. The sainted “peace movement,” for example, is supported by many who have good intentions but little prudence. The peace movement’s greatest success so far was to compel a U.S. retreat from Vietnam and help to make possible the genocide in Cambodia and the wretched oppression of Communist Vietnam from which thousands continue to try to flee in flimsy boats upon dangerous seas. Yet some Christians do not seem to recognize how their noble-sounding efforts serve the cause of Marxist oppression. It feels so good to be for “peace” that they do not want to spoil it by facing facts.

More folly is evident when many churchmen enthusiastically endorse Lenin’s discredited theory that poverty in the two-thirds world was somehow caused by the prosperity of the West Lenin concocted that dependency theory to explain why Marx’s own predictions about capitalism had failed so badly and to account for the rising standard of living on the part of the proletariat in the West Lenin’s gambit obviously has great appeal for the leaders of impoverished states looking for someone to blame for their own deficiencies or bad decisions, but its appeal for Western churchmen can only be explained in terms of seduction by Marxist myth.[10]

There is even a distinct possibility that support from churchmen, coming at a time when Marxism has lost most of its legitimacy and mythical appeal (owing to its brutality and colossal failures), will actually prolong the life of communist empires. What a supreme irony it would be if Christians were to give Marxism the religious legitimacy which it could never have generated for itself as a secular doctrine!

The Utopian Fallacy

The alignment of some Christians with Marxism can be explained by invoking the category of the utopian myth. Human hope for salvation in history—the millennial longing for a world purified of evil—is immense. Christianity provides a solution, but those who want change according to their timetables, not God’s, sweep aside even developed critical judgment in their rush to force open the gates of Eden. In this respect socialism possesses a clear “advantage” over capitalism. Socialism is one of the most powerful myths of the modem era, and the fact that it is nowhere realized only adds to its appeal.

It is vital to understand that a fugitive vision of this sort forever tantalizes those who long for it. Capitalism may produce better results in terms of productivity. It may produce a better car at a cheaper price. Capitalism, however, cannot compete with socialism in the area of romantic appeal.[11] This quality of romance has enabled Marxists to disregard the empirical data and persist in policies long after they have been seen to be ruinous.

Given our theology, Christians may be understandably vulnerable to ideological seduction from the utopian left. For one thing, God’s Spirit makes us sensitive to our own sins and failings, and this can alienate us from our own admittedly imperfect society. Indeed some of us feel so keenly the shortcomings of Western culture that we are prone to accept even false charges hurled against it and idealize societies just out of view, especially if they make a claim to social justice as Marxist regimes always do.

Paradoxically, it is easy for us to become estranged from our own society at the very moment millions are desperate to emigrate to it Somehow that socialist utopia just over the horizon must be a better place, we think, whether it be Tanzania, South Yemen or Albania. Just listen to the Christian terminology socialists use about equality and brotherhood!

But a deeper cause of our willing seduction lies in the millennial dimension of the Gospel message itself. Do we not pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10)? Do we not long to see Christ transform the nations and create a just and peaceful society? Of course we do, and this very fact exposes us to hucksters peddling the miracle ideology guaranteed to deliver the millennium for us.

How easy it is to be indifferent about practicalities in the realm of hope and religion; how easy to want to treat all people as if they were saints—not sinners; how easy to relish a foolish course of action in the name of a greater faith! Whatever moral grandeur can be found in the rhetoric of Marx is more than destroyed in the deadly havoc which has resulted from the implementation of his theories.

Part of today’s problem also lies in the secularization of the faith of certain of the theologians themselves. I would not want to suggest that all left-leaning Christians suffer from a loss of faith. But it is clear that political theology can easily be a substitute for faith rather than an expression of it. Owing to a crisis of faith in the message of the Bible, religious liberals during the past two centuries have sought to perform various kinds of salvage operations in order to have something left over once the old faith disappeared.[12]

Furthermore, intellectuals are unlike ordinary people in that they tend to feed upon ideas rather than realities. Many like nothing better than the grand theory which seems to tie everything together in a perfect mental system. Therefore, many gravitate to utopian schemes like Marx’s, and it seldom crosses their minds to ask the prosaic question of why the masses prosper under market economies and suffer deprivation under centrally planned systems.

The specter of Marxism as a failed myth comes clearly to expression in the new English edition of the work of Ernst Bloch. His work (some 1500 pages in English translation) is perhaps the most extravagant defense of Marxism ever mounted. Here we see a man whose mind was so obsessed by the hope for paradise that he refused to look reality in the face. Looking forward to the Novum, to the kingdom of God without God, he was able to persuade himself that this glorious future had begun to take shape in the Soviet system. From the purges, the gulags and the forced collectivization, Bloch has evidently learned nothing. The only fascism he can see is in the United States. Here we find a man so obsessed by utopia that he can condone mass murder in its name.[13]

In the end, the legacy of Marx is to have bequeathed a myth to the world so strong that it can withstand a thousand refutations. Brutality and folly notwithstanding, the vision is likely to endure because of its seductive power, particularly if Christians are taken in by it.

This article is excerpted from Freedom, Justice and Hope: Toward a Strategy for the Poor and the Oppressed, Marvin Olaslcy, editor; chapter 4, “The Pursuit of Utopia” by Clark H. Pinnock. Used by permission of Good New, Publishers/ Crossway Books, Westchester, Illinois 60154.

 

Dr. Clark H. Pinnock is professor of theology at McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, Ontario, and the author of Reason Enough, Set Forth Your Case and other books. This article was excerpted from Freedom, Justice, and Hope, edited by Marvin Olasky, 1988. Used by permission of Good News Publishers/Crossway Books, Westchester, Illinois 60154.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Gregory Bawn discusses ideology in broader terms in his book Religion and Alienation, A Theological Reading of Sociology (New York: Paulist Press, 1975), for example on pp. 99-111.

[2] Robert P. Ericksen, Theologians Under Hitler (New Haven: Yale, 1985).Also Richard J. Neuhaus, “The Obligations and Limits of Political Commitment,” This World, August 1986, pp. 55-69.

[3] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Warning to the Western World (London: BBC, 1986) is one of his many books. See also Robert Conquest, The Harvest of Sorrow, Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1986), and Paul Johnson, Modern Times, the World from the Twenties to the Eighties (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983).

[4] Sociologist Peter L. Berger has best pointed this out: The Capitalist Revolution, chap. 9.

[5] Paul Hollander, Political Pilgrims, Travels of Western Intellectuals to the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba 1928-1978 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981).

[6] Lloyd Billingsley tells this story in The Generation That Knew Not Josef: a Critique of Marxism and the Religious Left (Portland, Ore.: Multnomah Press, 1985).

[7] See John Eagleson, ed., Christians and Socialism (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1975), pp. 161, 163, 168, 169. The larger picture is painted by Andrew Kirk, Liberation Theology: an Evangelical View from the Third World (Atlanta: John Knox, 1979) and by Deane W. Ferm, Third World Liberation Theologies: an Introductory Survey (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1986).

[8] J.P. Miranda, Communism in the Bible (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1982).

[9] Blase Bonpane calls on his readers to join in the armed struggle as Christmas in a charming book entitled Guerrillas for Peace, Liberation Theology and the Central American Revolution (Boston: South End Press, 1985). For more information on the  leftist involvements of these churchmen, see Ernest W. Lefever, Amsterdam to Nairobi, the World Council of Churches and the Third World (Washington: Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1979); Paul Seabury, “Trendier Than Thou, the Episcopal Church and the Secular World,” Harper’s Magazine, October and December 1978; and Richard J. Neuhaus, ‘The World Council of Churches and Radical Chic,” Worldview Vol. 20 (1977), pp. 14-22.

[10] Thomas Sowell, Marxism, Philosophy and Economics (New York: William Morrow, 1985), pp. 213-215; P. T. Bauer, “Western Guilt and Third World Poverty,” in Equality, the Third World, and Economic Delusions (Boston: Harvard University Press 1981).

[11]Peter Berger, The Capitalist Revolution, p. 208ff. He Writes, “Socialism is one of the most powerful myths of the modern era; to the extent that socialism retains this mythic quality, it cannot be disconfirmed by empirical evidence in the minds of its adherents” (p. 215).

[12] This is the thesis of Van A. Harvey, The Historian and the Believer (New York: Macmillan, 1966).

[13] Ernest Bloch, The Principle of Hope (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1985). Let us not forget that Bloch was the inspiration for Moltmann’s Theology of Hope (New York: Harper & Row, 1967).