Marxist Sociology and Church in Marxist Society

QUESTION: Marxist Sociology – Church in Marxist Society

ANSWER:

Marxists have little patience with religion or any notion of God. They see religion as a stumbling block that slows the development of the classless society: “The influence of the church promotes the schism of the workers movement. Reactionary churchmen everywhere try to isolate religious workers from their class brothers by attracting them into separate organizations of a clerical nature....and thus diverting them from the struggle against capitalism.”¹

Marxist Sociology – The Abolition of Religion
In the former Soviet Union, Marxists used many different methods in their efforts to abolish religion. In the early days following the October Revolution, Marxists discriminated against priests in an effort to discourage anyone who wanted to be in the clergy. When discrimination failed to wipe out religion, Marxists tried to further restrict the church through state controls. On April 8, 1929, for example, the USSR enacted a law that forbade religious organizations from creating mutual assistance funds or providing aid to their members and from meeting at any time other than for religious services.

In effect, Marxist sociologists declared war against the church, a conflict that continues to the present day wherever Communists are in power.

Notes:

Rendered with permission from the book,Understanding the Times: The Collision of Today’s Competing Worldviews(Rev. 2^nd ed), David Noebel, Summit Press, 2006. Compliments of John Stonestreet, David Noebel, and the Christian Worldview Ministry at Summit Ministries. All rights reserved in the original.

¹ Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism (Moscow, USSR: Progress Publishers, 1959), 310. Cited in Raymond S. Sleeper, ed., A Lexicon of Marxist-Leninist Semantics (Alexandria, VA: Western Goals, 1983), 36.