Dear Friends,
It seems to me, Marxism is a religion in every sense but truth. People worship it as a socio-cultural belief. There are several shrines to Marxism, one is in Highgate, London. People still leave flowers to the man there. Marxism is a totalizing system. Moreover, it has symbols denoting the faith. Marxism bills itself as an anti-Christian alternative. Marxism has Marx as a savior, the proletariat as the chosen people, saints in true believers, capitalist society is the fallen world, heretics in reactionaries, an apocalypse in the Revolution, and even a heaven… a pure communist society. So, by almost every metric, Marxism and by default its offspring, socialism, progressivism, and communism are also religions. Marxism, however, is a materialist religion not a spiritual one.
A materialist religion is one in which there is no promise of an afterlife, punishment for evil, or reward for good. Everything is in the here and now. Therefore, no evil is unthinkable because there cannot be punishment for it. This gives Marxists an advantage against other systems. That advantage is a lack of ethics, morals, and limits. People who believe there will be consequences for evil actions in the afterlife will limit their actions. Meanwhile, someone who don’t have such ideas is limited only by their imaginations. Lenin had his men sneak into a village in the middle of the night and abduct a political enemy. Then they would torture him to death as a message. The only religions with greater leverage over terror than Marxism are those who literally advocate for inhuman behavior.
There are quite a few shrines to Marxism scattered around the world. One was quite interesting. It was the Georgia Guidestones. While it wasn’t overtly Marxist, it’s message of limited people and unlimited government was. It was destroyed a few years ago but that destruction never generated an arrest. That makes me suspect the people who owned it were involved, for whatever reason. Nevertheless, political systems don’t get shrines built for them… religions do. In this sense you could say that Karl Marx is Marxism’s Happy Buddha, Che Guevara is Marxism’s Angry Buddha, and Lenin is Marxism’s Hungry Buddha. Unlike most, but not all, religions, Marxism is defined by what it hates instead of by what it loves. Marxism and Marxists hate capitalism, Christianity, and populism.
Most religions are defined by what they love. Christianity is defined by the love God has for mankind, and the reciprocal love we should have for God. This is an example of a religion defined by love. Meanwhile, Marxism is defined by what it hates. This is a uniting factor for Marxists. Some people enjoy gathering to lament that which they hate. Many find fraternity in hate. Marxists, and indeed communists, socialists, and progressives all are defined by what they hate. This makes hate a uniting quality of these religions. This doesn’t mean individual Marxists are incapable of love… only that the religious doctrine is antagonistic. Since hate is their primary ethic, they are naturally opposed to any religion of love. The two are polar opposites of each other.
This brings us to why Marxists hate Christianity. Since hate is their primary driver and love is the primary motivator of Christianity, they are naturally opposed on a fundamental level. Christians are called to love their neighbors, family, and enemies. Meanwhile, Marxists are called to hate counter revolutionary neighbors and family members, as well as their enemies. The shrines to Marxism that dot the planet are signs that Marxism is more than a political ideology… it’s a religious system in a political dress. Marxism is difficult to get rid of as a religious system because it’s a materialist system. Violence is not a sin to Marxists… it’s a sacrament. So Marxism is a religion whether or not one admits it. Therefore, if one would fight against it, logic fails, while appeals to emotion and ethics succeed.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
