Christian socialism

“ My interest in the movement within our church looking towards a Christian socialism of a more radical and revolutionary type would be great, if only I could feel as I should so much like, that the Christian socialism to which you have consecrated the whole prime of your life, and the Marxian socialism, to which I have consecrated all of the little that remains of mine, the fag-end, are not utter incompatibilities, so much so that it is absolutely impossible that they can co-exist and co-operate to any good purpose. ”

“ Of no reformatory socialism is this more true than of the Christian kind. Christian socialism is absolutely worthless, and its utter worthlessness is due to the essentially parasitic character of supernaturalistic or orthodox Christianity.
Until the reformation, Christianity was dominated by monks—parasites who lived by begging, lying, and persecuting; and since then by capitalists—parasites who live by robbing, lying and warring. ”

“ Whether society is to be reformed only by reforming the individual units or whether the individuals are to be reformed by reforming their environment, may not be the only alternatives. The truth may lie in the reciprocal relation of these principles. In fact it is in the tacit recognition of this mutual harmonization of conflicting theories that Christian socialism has found its chief strength. If after all it is simply an individual matter, wherein does it differ from the more orthodox conceptions of Christianity and of society that give rise to the Christian socialist protest? ”

“ Men are so narrow that they can for the most part take only one view at a time, and so now they are inclined to push Christian socialism to the same extreme as at Jerusalem, and to forget that there is a great truth in individualism as there is another great truth in Christian socialism. ”

“ Moreover, I believe that if Christian socialism were to become a door to Marxian socialism, through which orthodox Christianism could enter and make itself at home, the revolutionary aims of the slave class would be thwarted and the world would enter upon a new dark age, as it did when Constantine was converted to Christianity and Christians became the most loyal citizens and valiant soldiers of the Empire. ”

“ My friends, I am a Christian socialist. I believe in your ideals of justice, of equality, of economic independence, and I shall rejoice with you when all those ideals have been crystallized into law. But do not deceive yourselves with the notion that you can accomplish these things without God. Do not make the mistake of attempting to realize your hopes without the aid of religion, for you will never succeed. Rob socialism of the things that hinder and debase it. ”

“ To endorse and accept all the various conflicting and even contradictory proposals loosely and popularly called Socialism would indeed be absurd and ridiculous. Nevertheless, on the whole the term Socialism has stood for constructive rather than destructive plans. What might be termed Christian Socialism, or perhaps still better constructive Christian Socialism, has ideals and aims that I unhesitatingly adopt as noble, just and right. When it comes to a program or plan to give practical application and realization to these ideals there is much room for debate and difference of opinion. ”

“ But Christian Socialism, in any of these forms, is evidently at a discount in the Evangelical Church in Germany; and the representative men in that Church, whatever they may do as private citizens, would seem to refrain, perhaps too jealously, from formulating in the name of religion any demands for the action of the State in the social question. ”

“ Quite lately there has appeared a manifesto, signed by one hundred clergy and ministers whom I may perhaps without disrespect call "whole hoggers," who write as Christian Socialists, and assert that Christian Socialism accepts in its entirety the Socialist programme. ”

“ Neither on them nor on the Christian clergy does the gospel of Christian socialism urge the duty of making any new sacrifice, or any new exertion, moral or physical, for themselves. Just as the clergy are to learn no more of business than they know now, but are to be relieved of the necessity for all prudence as to ways and means, so is the ordinary labourer to work no longer, no harder, and no better than he does now. [Pg 155] On the contrary, his hours of labour are to become ever less and less, and at the same time he is to receive ever greater and greater wages. ”

“ The ideal of Christian socialism at least, that is, equality in title to privilege of development, does not involve equality of results, for individual capabilities are various although the race is one. Equality of opportunity, in the common application of the term, is not enough; equality of participation in all things would be no less unsatisfactory to the individuals concerned.
This solidarity is to be achieved through religion, through Christianity. ”

“ Coöperation in the specific sense is only a half truth, and fails of solving any save the simplest of those problems which Christian socialism confronts. It is applicable only to certain industries and fails to eradicate the fundamental evils of the present system. But it was as a modus vivendi that it was seized upon by the earlier Christian socialists. ”

“ After all, the greatest merit of the Christian socialists, though it may have appeared a defect, is that with them socialism is a means not an end: that the end is the full development of the inherent capabilities of the individual, and that society is a means to this development. They have derived this perception from Christianity, and though the idea has been but vaguely conceived, it is taking shape as the highest ethical perception of the race. Because of the Christian socialists' failure to enunciate this distinctly their ideal of status has remained indefinite. ”

“ The ideals of Socialism might be realized by the precepts of Christianity, "love your neighbor as yourself." Difficult social questions which cannot be solved by the head are sometimes settled by the heart, for it appeals to the conscience, diminishing selfishness and making all classes friends. Christian Socialism, by encouraging mutual concessions, might perhaps attain better results than agitation and violence. ”

“ It needs a balance of mind, and in its application to complicated and wide-reaching social arrangements, an exactitude of knowledge and clearness of understanding which are ill replaced by sentimentalism, or even by honest feeling; and the fault of the current talk about Christian Socialism and the identity of socialism with Christianity is that it does not conduce to this clearness of understanding, which is the first requisite for any useful dealing with such questions. If socialism is just, it is Christian—that seems the sum of the matter. ”

“ Socialism on the contrary demands radical changes in society to increase the sum of happiness in each individual. Socialism requires the use of the legal straight jacket to enforce comparative equality; religion prefers the constraining influence of Christ to draw together the members of Christian brotherhood." [16] Thus Christian socialism is seen to work by internal spiritual forces, while socialism employs external material forces as means. Christian socialism is primarily reformatory and hence reconstructive; socialism on the contrary is revolutionary and hence destructive. ”

“ Then, with its mind freed from superstitious terrors and full of an unquenchable hope, the human race, owning its allegiance to the Eternal Goodness, and accepting as its captain the Working Man of Nazareth, will address itself steadily to the work of Christian socialism, honouring and encouraging labour without unwise and spasmodic pampering of it, dishonouring and discouraging idleness without unwise and direct recourse to forcible suppression of it ”

“ This Christian socialism, like Bolshevik socialism, turns the idle rich empty away; but, whereas the Christian gives them no chance to get anything to eat, the Bolshevik allows them to have as much as the poor, if they will work as hard. ”

“ The contradiction in terms known as the Christian Socialist is inevitably antagonistic to working-class interests and the waging of the class struggle. His policy (that of the Christian Socialist) is the conciliation of classes, the fraternity of robber and robbed, not the end of classes. His avowed object, indeed, is usually to purge the Socialist movement of its materialism, and this means to purge it of its Socialism and to divert it from its material aims to the fruitless chasing of spiritual will-o'-the-wisps. A Christian Socialist is, in fact, an anti-Socialist. ”

“ Such being the case, then, asks the writer, what does Christian socialism aim at? It does not aim at making men equal in respect of their ability, for to do this would be quite impossible; but it aims at producing an equality of a practical kind, by inducing the men whose ability is most efficient to forgo all personal claims which are founded on their own exceptional powers, so that the wealth which is at present secured by these powers for themselves may in the future be divided among the mass of their less able brethren. ”

“ That is why good Christian people can never get over the idea that Socialism means simply the triumph of one class over another. To-day the proletarian is down, the capitalist up. To-morrow the proletarian will be up and the capitalist down. To pull down the mighty from their seats and exalt them of low degree is the highest pitch to which Christian ethics ever attained. The failure of the older generation to recognize a higher ethic, the ethic of democracy, is the cause of all the trouble. ”

“ Prevalent socialistic demands have stultified themselves by an insistence upon economic dues to the exclusion of less material needs. "Christian socialism is not merely a question of the stomach; it is also a question about equitable distribution of ideal goods, the means of higher culture as the results of a progressive civilization." ”

“ The early Christians, one gathers, were almost completely communistic, and that interesting experiment in Christian Socialism (of a rather unorthodox type of Christianity) , the American Oneida community, was successfully communistic in every respect for many years. But the modern Socialist is not a communist; the modern Socialist, making his scheme of social reconstruction for the whole world and for every type of character, recognizes the entire impracticability of such dreams, recognizing, too, it may be, the sacrifice of human personality and distinction such ideals involve. ”

“ I am increasingly persuaded of the righteousness of the Socialist Movement. To me it seems that Socialism will make possible, in a practical way, the social ideals of the founder of the Christian Religion. The Church, at any period of its history, may, or it may not, truthfully, stand for the practical application of those ideals. ”

“ As Christian Socialism has no simple formula to solve all the manifold and complex economic difficulties, it must go slowly, cautiously and experimentally. As it sympathizes with both the individualist and the collectivist in certain respects in each case, it may seem to favor opposing policies, but perhaps it is a case of walking forward by first moving up the left foot, then the right foot. ”

“ That this is what the message of Christian socialism comes to, little as those who deliver it realise the fact themselves, is shown by an illustration obtruded on us by the author of "The Gospel for To-day." The evils of the existing situation, and its remoteness from the Kingdom of Christ, are, he says, exemplified in a very special way by the present position of the clergy. "If we churchmen," he says, "want money for our own purposes, we have to go to the trust magnates and kneel. We have to kneel to 'the steel kings and the oil kings,' merely because they are rich men." ”

“ They asked themselves how it was that the working classes were so largely adopting the desolate atheistic opinions which were found associated with the socialist movement, when the Church offered to gather them under her wing, and brighten their life with the comforts and encouragements of Christian faith and hope. They felt strongly that they must take more interest in the temporal welfare of the working classes than they had hitherto done, and must apply the ethical and social principles of Christianity to the solution of economic problems and the promotion of social reform. ”

“ These are the only concerns and aims of Marxian socialism and they cannot be promoted or even avowed by Christian socialists.
The great crime of the ages is the robbing of the producer of the basic necessities of human life by the non-producer.
Capitalism is the robber, and the politics and religion of the old states and churches are the right and left hands by which he has been and is doing the robbing. ”

“ Indeed, among Protestants, what is called Christian Socialism is little more than a vagrant opinion in any country; but among Catholics it has grown into a considerable international movement, and has in several States—especially in Austria—left its mark on legislation. ”

“ Timid, at the outset, Socialism spoke at first in the name of Christian sentiment and morality: men profoundly imbued with the moral principles of Christianity—principles which it possesses in common with all other religions—came forward and said—"A Christian, has no right to exploit his brethren!" ”

“ These are the most notorious of those who may be denounced as the anti-Christian agitators of the labor question. Socialism is the name they have inscribed on their banner; and hence, since all these inventors and champions have also been unanimous in waging war, directly or indirectly, against Christianity, their socialism itself should be opposed by all good Christians. ”