By СССР – http://pravo.levonevsky.org/
This week marks the centenary of the communist revolution in Russia, a process that was supposed to bring liberation to millions of oppressed workers but also brought terror and oppression to millions of innocent bystanders, not only in Russia but across the globe as the Soviets exported their revolution to eastern Europe, southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. While intelligentsia, bourgeoisie, merchants and managers all suffered purges, Christians have often been specifically targeted by communist regimes. Possibly up to 20 million Christians died at the hands of the Soviet Union, and many millions more under other communist regimes. Communist governments to this day continue to oppress Christians, particularly in North Korea.
Ever since Karl Marx commented in 1843 that “Religion… is the opium of the people”, communism has singled out Christianity for being an oppressor itself and keeping the working classes firmly entrenched at the bottom of the social ladder, and there may well be some truth in this. For example, the whimsical hymn “All things bright and beautiful”, published in the revolutionary year of 1848 by Mrs C F Alexander, contains the lines:
The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them high and lowly,
And ordered their estate.
Hardly encouraging the proletariat to become upwardly mobile! Founder of the Chinese Republic Sun Yat-Sen, himself a Christian, allegedly observed that the gospel contains enough dynamite to blow up all the existing social structures in Europe. Yet somehow the Establishment of the church allied the gospel to the elites in society, when the initial first century believers were mainly slaves or the urban poor. So over the centuries, Christianity switched sides, although there were many notable exceptions, particularly amongst the monastics (think St Francis of Assisi) and the non-conformists (Elizabeth Fry, Dr Barnardo, George Müller).
Yet until very recently, when elements in the church have attempted to embrace the restructuring of society so that the poor and marginalised begin to become empowered, they are usually lambasted as communists, like the liberation theologians of Latin America. Hélder Pessoa Câmara, a Roman Catholic Archbishop in Brazil during the military governments of the 1960s-80s pointed out:
“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.”
It seems that for centuries, Christians have valued order, stability and power, and assuaged their consciences by donating to the poor. A truly radical church would possibly make communism redundant: abolishing slavery, establishing economic equality and becoming a protector and advocate for the vulnerable and marginalised.
Today many thousands of mission workers throughout the world are trying to do just that – working as agricultural advisers, advocates for social justice, campaigning against homelessness, modern slavery and people trafficking, working in prisons and refugee camps. They need more people to join them, to fund them and pray for them. There is a huge need across the world which the church should be meeting. Can you put your career on hold for a few years to go and help? Or cancel your next holiday so you can donate some real money? Give up an hour of television a week to pray for world mission?
In a sobering passage in Matthew 25, Jesus said to his followers: “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” Today, where do we have the opportunity to serve Jesus in one of his most ‘distressing disguises’?[1]
[1] Mother Theresa of Calcutta in Where There is Love, There is God
