Socialism/A brief thought on 'Christian Socialism'.

Is there much sensibility in ‘Christian Socialism’?

One must imagine that this question has ‘done the rounds’ amongst the faithful in recent years. As the likes of Bernie Sanders or Jeremy Corbyn come to the forefront of Western politics and then find themselves wilting mere flickers later, one has to wonder or even assume, that there are those in communion with Rome who have asked where the politics of their faith lay and if it suits this recent rise in Leftist dogma.

In this regard, I firmly regard this question as being twofold in answer, both of which reject Socialism on a political front. Firstly, correctly, belief in Christ must come with the rejection of Capitalistic materialism. But this is not the rejection that stems from the atheistic, secularist doctrine of Karl Marx who regarded our true faith as an ‘opiate of the masses’. Christ likens the rich man entering heaven as being as difficult as a camel passing through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19:24) and acts with disdain when faced with the corruption of the Beis Hamikdash by open mercantile acts (Matthew 21:12-13), but one must come to understand that this dismay is at elements that separate us from God or blind us to the true use of our time, energy and vision – not to some oppression of the supposed Proletariat. This is not a cause for the red-flag waving degeneracy of the Socialist movement that equalises all in sinful self-righteousness and places class of the flesh above our service to God.

When one calls to mind this definition of ‘degeneracy’, one has to remind oneself that the Socialist movement, much like Capitalism which has gone through “liberation” at the hands of leftist’s within, is one of open vice, sexual immorality, of homosexuality and of secularity. It is of a humanistic quality that lends itself to a ‘me, all about me’ doctrine which hides behind the liberation of the working man, yet only severs him from the true goal of living well and with eyes for God. Bolshevism as an extreme offshoot from Socialistic roots, attempted to exterminate the Church, leading many through the blindness of Communism to hell.

Think on how many Socialist members of the political elite are Christian or espouse Christian policy also. This is the political legitimiser of the heinous acts of abortion, this is the agenda that defends bigamy, this is the process of tolerance-by-force that has torn at the hearts of the faithful who have lost so much by expressing their faith openly. One must remember that if one is an actual Socialist, one is either an atheist or a hypocrite. There is no in-between.

Thus, I ask of the faithful to remember that there is Socialism and then there is a rejection of sinful Capitalism, the two are truly different and cannot intermingle. One must take inspiration from the frugal existence of St. Francis of Assisi not the atheistic, self-centred lies of liberation espoused by Lenin. One must push to behold the work ethic of St Padre Pio, not live in the dogma of the chronically unemployed Karl Marx. Be for the good of society, be for the poor and the meek above all, but do not be for normalising poison.

Capitalism blackens the heart, it blinds the eyes, it strikes at the faithful through consumerism and commerce in an attempt to place money at the centre of our existence - it is a tool to get us worshiping the temporary. Capitalism is a grandiose purveyor of sold-sex, an accursed and continued drugging of the populous as if to sedate us or numb us in the face of worsening evil. But consider my points on the matter of Socialism, how can one be held above the other by the faithful when both are hellish in being?

We must thus help the poor, treat the sick, attend to the needs of this world riddled by diseases of the mind and spirit, we must be a hand offered out but we must do so with God first – not with this mortal, weak realm of flesh as the end. One must reject Socialism as readily as Capitalism and live for the good of service to our Lord. For His one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church. It is better to not even vote than to allow our rightful aspirations for social justice under God, to lead us to social degradation and the permitting or ready acceptance of mortal sin.

- Oliver A.W. Cremin, BA