Liberal Delusionation: Religious Communism

This will be a new feature on the blog, the Delusionating of Liberals and others. I am hereby defining (and coining, I believe) delusionation as:

de-lu-sion-a-tion [di-loo-zhuhn-ay-shun]

-noun

1. an act of pretending that something you desire is reality, regardless of actual reality.

2. a voluntary false belief that something imaginary is real.

Related forms: delusionatory, delusionate, delusionation

As a recovering liberal, I have seen delusionatory behavior first-hand. The uninitiated might be surprised at the vehemence of a liberal acquaintance's delusionation. It is usually accompanied by a flushed face, muttering "Bush" and/or "Cheney" under the breath, and staccato vocal outbursts. The most telling sign that someone is suffering from a delusionation is when they refer to something that they want as something that is real. Now that alone isn't a delusionation. I want ice cream to be cold. This isn't a delusionation for the simple fact that most ice cream is cold and ice cream is intended to be cold (hence the ice in the name). This only becomes a delusionation if what this person is referring to as real is not in fact real. Using the same example, if for some loony reason I enjoy hot ice cream I could say to my friend, "Ice cream is hot". Now this is a delusionation. Just because I would like ice cream to be hot, does not mean that ice cream is indeed hot. See the difference? Reality vs. what I would like reality to be. Not always the same thing.

In this maiden voyage of the Liberal Delusionation segment, I would like to examine Religious Communism. The fine people at the People's Weekly World have posted an interesting story touching this topic. For those of you unfamiliar with the PWW, they are "a national, grassroots weekly newspaper and the direct descendant of the Daily Worker." They fully admit that they are partisan saying:

"The PWW is known for its partisan coverage. We take sides — for truth and
justice. We are partisan to the working class, racially and nationally oppressed
peoples, women, youth, seniors, international solidarity, Marxism and
socialism."

You might say that there is some delusionation going on in their mission statement with the near equivalence of Marxism with truth and justice, and you would be correct but they don't stop there. The PWW published an interesting story a couple of weeks ago about the Communist Party USA. It seems that the Communist Party USA has established a Religion Commission to "strengthen its work among religious people and organizations." To the head of this commission, they appointed Tim Yeager. Tim is a trade unionist in Chicago and also a member of the Episcopal Church. According to the article, Yeager notes that:

"[t]here is a common misconception concerning the position of the Communist
Party USA about religion. . . Many who are unfamiliar with the party wrongly
assumes that all Communists are atheists, or that the party requires its members
to be atheists. Nothing could be farther from the truth."

Really, Tim? Is this the same Communist doctrine derived from Marxism? Because Marx himself said, "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness," (Marx, K. 1976. Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right). Lenin himself wrote the following in his book Religion, "Atheism is a natural and inseparable part of Marxism, of the theory and practice of scientific socialism." Anywhere communism has been adopted in an official capacity, religion is one of the first targets of the Nomenklatura.

Now I'm not denying that there have been communists under a sheepskin amongst the flock for a long time. There are quite a few here in the Chicago-land area - Pfleger I'm looking at you. But how ever much these nut-jobs would like to equate Social Justice/Communism with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it ain't happening. It's simply a delusionation.

The two are antithetically opposed. (I'd like to focus on the tensions between Communism and Christianity primarily but as you can see from the first point below, nearly every major religion would have an inherent inconsistency with Marxist/Communist doctrine).

1. Communism is a strictly materialist doctrine. No spirituality, after-life, omnipotent Creator allowed. Christianity is a system of beliefs that is rooted in an individual's faith in "things unseen".
   
2. Christianity highlights the fallen state of mankind and the need for redemption. Every man, woman, and child is innately sinful, leading to the necessity of Christ's substitutionary death on the Cross. Marxism could be considered a humanist doctrine, in that it sees evil arising not from internal sources in man but from external influences, such as capitalism and greed. That man, once freed from capitalistic and class-based structures, will ultimately prove his inner goodness.
   
3. In Communism, the State is the highest good. In Christianity, God is the highest good.

The tensions between the two are myriad and numerous, but as you can see the fissures begin at the ground floor and just get wider the further you examine these two belief-systems. So for Mr. Yeager to state that Communism and Christianity are compatible is a pretty serious Liberal Delusionation. I pray that Mr. Yeager will seek the foundation of his Episcopalian Church (the stone that the builders rejected) for his inspiration, instead of seeking the dictatorship of the proletariat here on Earth.