10.14.2008

For my Seminary F/friends


And I'll add a quote from Peter Gomes later, once I find it again...
Update: the promised quote!
Gomes describes a student giving testimony at daily Morning Prayers (at Harvard, where Gomes is Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in The Memorial Church). The student had, "come to believe that it is better to give than to receive, that love is stronger than death, that good ultimately overcomes evil, that the love of money is bad, and that peace is the ultimate destiny for the created order."
Gomes concludes the paragraph, "I can say that I have never heard a better expression of the Christian faith. My only concern is that it didn't come from a Christian." (p. 71) Because the student is a self-avowed communist. I'm tempted to offer a length commentary here, particularly focusing on Acts 4:32-35 (which Gomes clearly has in mind but doesn't exegete here), but I'll leave that for another time.
However, I'm reminded of a book group meeting I attended several years ago. At that meeting, the person leading the discussion posed the question bluntly, "Is Christianity compatible with capitalism?" Before I could offer my opinion ("no"), an older woman forcefully declared, "yes!" I mention "forcefully" because, although she couldn't back her position up with Scripture (and I'm not saying it can't be done, only that she didn't do it), her strong reaction shut down further discussion, and that's just frustrating. I don't know what her fears are, since orthodox Marxism is fairly hostile to any religion; but it's dangerous to brand certain topics as off-limits to discussion. Discussion is how we vet whether an idea has merit or not; again, I'll save my thoughts for a later post, but you can read this if you're interested).
I joke about having an "inner Marxist" (which irritates many of my F/friends, whether they identify as Christian, anarchist, or libertarian), but as a person of faith I'm certainly not a dogmatic or "orthodox" Marxist. However, I'm also not a dogmatic or orthodox Christian.
I'm just glad to see a self-described conservative (who delievered the Benediction at Ronald Reagan's second inauguration, and performed the inaugural service for George H.W. Bush) recognizes that there is indeed a connection between Christian moral values and communism.

7 comments:

Matthew Hisrich said...

It's interesting that you mention "Discussion is how we vet whether an idea has merit or not," especially since communism so often seems to involve killing off everyone who offers dissent...

Mr. Miro said...

Yes, there's a long and bloody history of so-called communist countries killing off the bourgeios pigs... but nothing in Marx about that, to the best of my knowledge. Communism is not, contrary to popular belief, identical with totalitarianism: notice how communist countries have historically been identified with single figures, such as Castro, Mao, or Kim Jong Il, which is completely opposite of Marx's notion of the state withering away.

Matthew Hisrich said...

What do you suppose is the reason Marx keeps getting misinterpreted by all of these ruffians?

Mr. Miro said...

Probably the same reason the Bible keeps being misinterpreted by all those other ruffians.

Anonymous said...

If only someone would come along that could explain both to us so that we could all understand...

Julie said...

I'm not that person, but I'd point out that your two groups of ruffians are not necessarily exclusive. Quakers, for instance, appear able to abuse both the Bible and Marx, sometimes even within the same sermon.

Recent experiences of attempted totalitarianism in SMB tempt me to stretch that further, given that quaker process operates sorta like communism ought to operate, but seems ever-so-likely to get off on killing anyone who 'stands in the way' of the majority.

Anonymous said...

If only Quakers could achieve world domination through passive aggression!