Christianity and Reaction: The Case for Leftist Organizing in the Church

- Pamphlets

This text was written as part of the LSC Pamphlet Program. It reflects only the opinions of the author(s) and not the consensus of the Libertarian Socialist Caucus.

by Eleutheria of Hesperos

“Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.” James 5:1–6, NIV

It is a fact in the United States, and in most of the modern western world, that religion is generally the purview of the reactionary or the liberal. Over the past 40 years or so, the Christian Right in America has grown into the spine of the modern fascist movement, spawning demagogues such as Nick Fuentes, Pete Hesgeth, Matt Walsh and others. Religion is ever inseparable from American politics (god forbid we ever elect a Quaker in our slavery loving country!) and increasingly is forming into a movement which seeks to make laws and conduct of the state to be ruled by a very strict and fascistic interpretation of biblical law, essentially Dominionism. Dominionism is a theological/ideological position found in modern Christofascist and Christian nationalist movements, which essentially seeks to replace any semblance of secular society or governance with a system governed by an ultra-conservative, literalist interpretation of biblical laws. In effect, Dominionism seeks to replace democracy with a fascistic, oligarchic, theocracy where “sinners” and otherwise non-believers would face punishments as described in the Bible and determined by a council of theocrats. This is akin to how many churches have church elders to whom people go to discuss matters of discipline and concern in the church, but as the governing procedure of an entire country regardless of one’s personal belief. Their wrath would not simply be limited to non-Christians or non-believers, but would extend to Christians who Dominionists might view as “heretical” or “corrupted”. While there are examples in other communities (Zionism, Salafism, Hindutva, Fascism, etc. in Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Pagan communities respectively), I shan’t mention them here as those are not my communities to comment on. I’m a Christian, I belong to no denomination and to elaborate my beliefs beyond “Christian anarcho-communism” would take a considerable amount of time to articulate, which is ultimately not the focus of this essay. The religious right has long been growing a cancer which continues to fester while the left leaves religious spaces largely abandoned. This is a shame, for many religious groups and communities are largely progressive on a lot of issues, but have been so influenced by Christofascist and Christian nationalist propaganda that our organizing within these communities often becomes harder. We can’t abandon religious spaces to the right anymore. We as a movement must stake our claim and push on from there, we must not cede an institution under considerable influence in day-to-day life from the American Right.


“We Fool You!”

Marx famously said: “Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.” (Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right).

Marx’s argument ultimately amounts to the political analysis of religion, which is to say that religion is something created as a salve to explain and justify things, a product of the material conditions from which it comes and not from some genuine spiritual revelation in his eyes. Marx’s problem with religion is that it is a system which, in his eyes, inherently requires one to embrace delusions of happiness in their condition and therefore make them unwilling to rise up against the conditions which create his real misery. Marx ultimately then concludes that religion is ultimately contrary to the liberation of the working class.

Bakunin, his rival, makes a much more emphatic and somewhat similar statement, “With all due respect, then, to the metaphysicians and religious idealists, philosophers, politicians, or poets: The idea of God implies the abdication of human reason and justice; it is the most decisive negation of human liberty, and necessarily ends in the enslavement of mankind, both in theory and practice. Unless, then, we desire the enslavement and degradation of mankind… we may not, must not make the slightest concession either to the God of theology or to the God of metaphysics. If God is, man is a slave; now, man can and must be free; then, God does not exist. I defy anyone whomsoever to avoid this circle; now, therefore, let all choose. Is it necessary to point out to what extent and in what manner religions debase and corrupt the people? They destroy their reason, the principal instrument of human emancipation, and reduce them to imbecility, the essential condition of their slavery. They dishonor human labor, and make it a sign and source of servitude. They kill the idea and sentiment of human justice, ever tipping the balance to the side of triumphant knaves, privileged objects of divine indulgence. They kill human pride and dignity, protecting only the cringing and humble. They stifle in the heart of nations every feeling of human fraternity, filling it with divine cruelty instead.” (Bakunin, God and the State).

Whereas Marx’s appeal is of a more political, anthropological character, Bakunin’s objection is much more metaphysical, but all the same they describe the same conclusion: Religion is a means to enslave humanity. This belief has long been a cornerstone of Anarchism and Marxism and has largely proceeded apace with the modern day. Gramsci noted as well his objection to religion, Max Stirner noted god (and everything else) as narratives which sought to deprived man of his freedom, the USSR declared itself as state atheist, the relationship the CNT-FAI had with the church was one of hostility for its allegiance to the Francoists, and so on. Indeed, one of the most common depictions of capitalism used in the US is the Pyramid of Capitalism. This piece was first published in the US by the Industrial Worker in 1911 and depicts different levels of the Capitalist hierarchy, on the third to top level we have the clergy on a platform which reads “We Fool You!” (Nedeljkovich, Brashich, and Kuharich, Pyramid of Capitalism, The International Pub. Co., 1911. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anti-capitalism_color%E2%80%94_Restored.png )

If You Ever Obey a Human like Yourselves…

In our absence in religious spaces and in organizing religious communities, the christo-fascist rot has become a plague among the faithful of the US. Look out the window, read the papers: What bigot does not invoke Christ in their justification for genocide be it against Palestinians, BIPOC, or queers? It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when Christian nationalism first formed: Some scholars have suggested its roots begin at the very first European settlements in the Americas, others point to the Pilgrims and their philosophies, and then some point to the Civil War, where one James Henley Thornwell called for a breaking down of the wall between Church and State in the Confederacy. I would posit however that Christian nationalism in the modern day really found its roots in the 1930’s –1950’s with the anti-communist movement that would become the hallmark of the Cold War. Business interests began to vilify socialist ideals as satanic, pointing to the anti-clerical and anti-theist messages of many socialists, and a threat to the “natural order”, which in turn also lent itself to segregationist arguments which stoked fear around “amalgamation” and introduced other racial and bigoted dog-whistles and terms.

The 1980’s–1990’s was a period of fertile ground for the hyper-moralist philosophies of Christianity, and thus a nascent Christian nationalist movement started to pop up. The era of Ronald Reagan and the Waco siege became the spawning ground of the modern fundamentalist Christian nationalist ideas which have become commonplace in American conservatism. Reagan, in his attempt to rally voters against Jimmy Carter, invoked fears of moral degradation and chaos and inherently began to tie conservatism explicitly with Christianity. This conservative moralism had always existed, but the specific brand and method in which he did so was heavily influenced by groups like the Moral Majority led by Jerry Falwell Sr. and other prominent figures and members of the broader Shepherding movement. It was this move by Reagan and others in his circle that truly mobilized white middle-class Christians as a force in politics. The image Reagan crafted of the “Empire of Evil” for the Soviet Union as a place where Christians were oppressed by the government, having to hide from being persecuted and needing to escape to the free West, was powerful to many. This not only led him to the White House, it cemented Republicans as the “religious” party in the eyes of voters. The Waco siege arguably sparked the formation of right-wing Christian militias in America. Waco truly cemented the idea that Big Government was trying to suppress the rights of the faithful, and thus the faithful needed to arm themselves for their protection, just as Reagan and others had warned.

Since the 90’s, we have seen movements such as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and The Seven Mountains Mandate, and popular figures such as Nick Fuentes, Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, and the Robertsons, weaponize right-wing Christian ideals to move more explicitly into increasing conspiratorial, violent, and insurrectionary actions against queer, BIPOC, immigrant and non-Christian communities. Project 2025 is itself heavily inspired by many of the aforementioned movements and people, many of whom have ties to the Heritage Foundation. This movement has no signs of stopping and even in places where no self proclaimed members exist, Christian spaces online and in public are heavily influenced by right-wing ideology. For instance, if you search the question “What is the role of women in the Bible?” you will often find people quoting Timothy 1, Timothy 2, and Titus (otherwise called the Pastoral epistles). These arguments formed the bedrock of the Shepherding movement and continue to inspire Christian nationalists, in spite of scholarly evidence discrediting [Ehrman, Bart D. Forged. HarperOne, 2011.], [MacDonald, Margaret T. "The Deutero-Pauline Letters in Contemporary Research," in The Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 258-279.], [Matthijs den Dulk, (2012), "I Permit No Woman to Teach Except for Thecla: The Curious Case of the Pastoral Epistles and the Acts of Paul Reconsidered", Novum Testamentum 54 (2012), pp. 176–203] the Pastoral Epistles due to their direct contradictions with Paul and his opinions on the role of women in the church, celibacy, and marriage as outlined in Corinthians!

Regrettably, if you were to look for Christian content in the modern day, much of it will inevitably be right-wing, or at the very least outline some of the self-same beliefs whether indirectly or otherwise. Your preacher himself or any number of Christian influencers might attempt to dispense the “True” interpretation of the Bible based on their own beliefs. Oftentimes, people will believe them, because these are influential people who, as fellow Christians, we are ostensibly predisposed to wanting to believe the best in. Most Christians are ignorant as to the extent of the control these institutions and their agenda have gained in congregations. If you as a priest or a member of a congregation disagree with their doctrines or beliefs, you risk ostracism or even censure—which can be incredibly dangerous if you rely on the resources churches might provide.

What does that have to do with us?

The situation for the faithful is bleak and it seems that there’s no real opposition to the rightward march of American Christianity. As it stands, Christian nationalism stands concerningly poised to conquer the spiritual sanctums of America. The right has long held control of churches, and Christofascism presents yet another tool for them to utilize in pursuit of power. If the Civil Rights Movement taught us anything, it’s that the church is a powerful tool for organizing. During the CRM, it was Black Churches which played an incredibly important role in helping to organize direct action by giving black communities support in the form of meeting spaces, funds, and connections across the country. Certain religious communities, such as the Quakers, have played a historically significant role in supporting civil rights and abolitionist efforts in the US. Transcendentalists such as Henry David Thoreau have presented some of the earliest attempts at American environmental activism and socialist ideas, and some of the earliest attempts at socialist communes find their roots in Fourierism. Such instances reflect the power of religious communities to advance liberatory movements! If we do not include religious communities and help incorporate socialism into their beliefs, they will always remain at odds with our vision and thus resent us.

Many moderately liberal progressive churches in communities have coalitions which work to pull together resources to charity ends. What if we could perhaps contribute and turn these projects into sustainable mutual aid projects? What if we used churches as sanctuaries to protect queer youth and immigrants from authorities? What if we used churches as third places for our communities to meet each other and organize actions? I envision the Church as a place for the faithful and otherwise alike to benefit together, as it should be. The messaging infrastructure and the connections with already existing aid structures in churches would make them invaluable for our goals as socialists.

All of this being said, I do not wish to give a free pass to Christianity in the US. It has played a great role in colonialism; arguably North American settler colonialism does not exist without Christianity: Justifications for Slavery, The Code of Handsome Lake, “the curse of Cain”, Indigenous Boarding schools, Manifest Destiny, etc. were all major tenets of Christian belief in North America. While Christian churches still have yet to properly reconcile their active participation in settler-colonialism and make restitution, this must start with a decolonization of Christianity from within the ranks of the faithful. Most churches have patriarchal, male-dominant congregations, where the role of women is often limited to at best deacons or church workers in most churches. Churches also largely remain abusive towards queer youth, women, and minors, and the abuse of the clergy is rife. These are all things we must seek to dismantle as socialists.

We have a lot of work ahead of us, but in my heart I believe we can take back these communities and drive reactionaries from the core of American society. Pillar by pillar, we can take the structures of power, dismantle them, and create something beautiful, something free, something, if I may be bold to say so, very Christian in nature!

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. I myself am convinced, my [siblings], that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another.” Romans 15:13–14