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On a personal note, I met many christians in the FMLN who certainly did not shirk from military discipline. Some historians would argue that the whole idea of social justice is embedded in the judeo-christian tradition, in particular among the prophetic tradition thereof. On the protestant side, you have such denominations as the Mennonites, the Church of the Brethren, the Hutterites, the Quakers, and others, who espouse similar anarchist-communist principles. If anyone is interested, you can check out "The Politics of Jesus" , by John Howard Yoder, for a very good presentation of their brand of liberation theology. We should not forget the influence of the Highlander Center on the Civil Rights movement. It was founded by Miles Horton, who studied theology under Neibuhr at Union Theological Seminary in NYC. There is also some good work by Cone on Black Theology of Liberation, and of course there was Malcom X's views on Jesus. http://www.jesusradicals.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIAcY7VpZo0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_theology On Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 5:51 PM, New Tet <cchrist...@bellsouth.net> wrote: > Should a class conscious world-wide socialist movement ever gets under way, > can > religious people, lay and ordained alike, have a significant and edifying > role in it? > > As you likely know, Glenn Beck went after "religion" the other day, inciting > a > chorus of protest from various sectors, including some conservative and > liberal > religious professionals. He coupled 'social justice' doctrines preached in > many > sects with evil Communism and Fascism. > > So far, none of Beck's detractors I've read, heard or seen has defended > communism > from the implied slur against it. In this, they play it safe while ceding > considerable > ground to Beck. > > I presume that most of you reading this understand that communism and > fascism are > irreconcilably and diametrically opposed the one to the other. I would argue > that > even Soviet 'communism', in spite of its apparent similarities with Fascism, > was > ideologically and in practice a world away from National Socialism. > > But this is a tangent, really > > It would be more interesting (to me, at least) to discover if Marxian > Socialism owes > anything to Judaism and Christianity. > > From the SLP I learned that the early Christian church had organized itself > under a > system of common ownership, as illustrated in the Acts of the Apostles. > > I suppose that in those days any viable form of communism meant a more or > less > equal partnership in a subsistence economy. Vows of poverty, once so common > in > most major religions, especially Christianity, perhaps became doctrine as a > result > of this realization. > > Anyway, my beef with this latest Glenn Beck flap started out because I > expected > someone, anyone, of his public detractors to point out that Liberation > Theology > has been largely accepted by at least one of the major branches of > Christianity. > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_Theology > ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
