Now how is this ideology relevant to Christians and our churches? The short answer is that this ideology did not fade away. Rather it has undergone several evolutions in the academy, seminaries, governments, and private companies. The past modes of Cultural Marxism were political correctness, wokeness, social justice, and political left-wing (more extreme distinctions from American liberalism).
The unifying traits of Marxism include class struggle, class consciousness, and materialism. Class struggle divides humanity into the oppressed working class in conflict with the oppressive rich class. Class Consciousness refers to the theory that a person can be unaware of their oppression and that they can become aware with specially received knowledge. Materialism is an atheistic conclusion that there is no spiritual realm or afterlife. Only the matter that we can observe. Class struggle is now white people oppressing people of color, and class consciousness has been expanded to people of color becoming awake and alert to systemic oppression from white oppressors. Materialism is foundational for genuine atheism. It is also foundational for a full convert to Marxism.
Marxist social movements use a variety of tactics to achieve their desired future. The most powerful one in their arsenal is “Home-made materialists.” What this refers to is the tactic of Marxists infiltrating institutions such as schools, entertainment, and churches to influence what children believe to be true. A child who grows into an atheist-materialist is already three-fourths of the way to full Marxism. The four premises for a full convert to Marxism are taught as follows:
1. Everything in existence came from accumulated accidents.
2. Human beings are only evolved beasts and therefore human life is no more sacred than that of a centipede, a caterpillar, or a pig.
3. There is no such thing as objective right or wrong; only what works for me.
4. That all religions must be overthrown because they inhibit my vision for human advancement.
In The Communist Manifesto their tactics include this quote, “In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things.” An example can be found in the history of Hollywood's Screen Writers Guild through the work Hollywood Traitors: Blacklisted Screenwriters - Agents of Stalin, Allies of Hitler. This guild was originally founded by Communists and non-communists to improve working conditions for writers. However, the founding member and first president of the guild John Howard Lawson was sent by the Communist Party headquarters in New York to California to enforce their interests. “They wanted it to be an all-powerful union that would further Soviet goals.” In the November 1934 New Theatre magazine he publicly announced his support of the Communist party as a Hollywood screenwriter. In grade school, I was taught that he and the other blacklisted Hollywood writers were mild liberals who fell victim to a modern witch hunt by the Red Scare.
The demographics that are most often drawn to Marxism and its critical theory descendants are blue-collar workers, historically marginalized minorities, student and youth movements, and intellectuals. Workers and minorities typically are made antagonistic towards Marxist targets through polarization. Following the oppressor against the oppressed view of human identity. For student movements and intellectuals, there is an irony to what draws them in. Students are mostly children of financially successful parents who could afford to send their children to college. Student and youth movements include the example of the months-long Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in 2011. A movement of resistance against the rich. Thomas Sowell summarizes Marxist intellectuals with this quote, “The offspring of privilege have dominated the leadership of Marxist movements from the days of Marx and Engels through Lenin, Mao, Castro, Ho Chi Minh, and their lesser counterparts around the world and down through history. The sheer reiteration of the "working class" theme in Marxism has drowned out this plain fact.”
After learning what this ideology is and how it persists in the world, I was left wondering how can a Christian respond to this before it overtakes churches and their countries. One of the responses I have found helpful is using the Bible when evangelizing to a Marxist. Marxists cannot justify their four premises against the Biblical worldview. The word of God is a sword that cuts down all of the premises that make Marxism morally attractive or rational. That is why it is common to eliminate it from the discussion. Comments like “I’m not a Christian so the Bible does not apply to our conversation” are false. Don’t fall for it, if they can share their Marxist faith with you, then you can share your Christian faith with them.
Studying the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ sermon on the mount in Matthew chapters 5-7 are helpful to discuss with Marxists in depth. Christian apologetics also is great for evangelism, God uses it to mature our faith against spiritual and ideological captivity to evil. Lastly, strengthen your interpersonal bonds with fellow Christians who want you to mature in your walk with God. I broke free from Marxism and others can do the same. Someone needs to be willing to tell them what’s wrong with their thinking.
Works Cited
Alinsky, Saul. Rules for radicals. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1989. Buchanan, Ian. A Dictionary of Critical Theory. Oxford University Press, 2018. Cone, James H. A Black Theology of Liberation. Orbis Books, 2010. Courtois, Stéphane. The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. Edited by Stéphane Courtois and Mark Kramer, translated by Stéphane Courtois and Mark Kramer, Harvard University Press, 1999. Kendi, Ibram X. How to Be an Antiracist. Random House Publishing Group, 2019. Moore, Samuel, translator. The Communist Manifesto. English ed., Public Domain, 1888. Ryskind, Allan H. Hollywood Traitors: Blacklisted Screenwriters - Agents of Stalin, Allies of Hitler. Skyhorse Publishing, 2015. Skousen, Willard Cleon. The Naked Communist. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013. Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. The Gulag Archipelago. Abridged ed., Penguin Random House UK, 2018. 1-3 vols. Sowell, Thomas. Discrimination and Disparities. Basic Books, 2019.