Passport, check.
Laptop, check.
Massive green backpack loaded with three months’ worth of ridiculously heavy supplies, check.
I hoisted the backpack—did I mention it was ridiculously heavy?—and headed to the car, bound for the airport. Which direction would the plane be taking me?
I’ll explain everything . . . but first, let me back up.
Three and a half years earlier, I’d hoisted the same backpack and set off on a journey to travel 360° around the world in 180 days, documenting Christian students’ university experiences. As I was first exploring Canadian universities for that project, I found a poster telling students to join Canada’s Young Communist League, declaring that “capitalism is war, climate crisis, racism, patriarchy, colonialism” and so on. Many people don’t realize how these and other major issues are being exploited to promote a divisive Marxist agenda that is anti-God, anti-family, anti-gospel, and ultimately rooted in man’s futile agenda to make himself the authority for truth—an agenda as old as Eden.
As a quick overview, Karl Marx (1818–1883) viewed history as the story of struggle, conflict, and oppression between economic groups.1 Marx believed that in his era, this struggle waged between two main classes: the wealthy (bourgeoisie) who controlled society’s means of producing consumer goods,2 and the workers (proletariats) who laboured for business owners.
Karl Marx viewed history as the story of struggle, conflict, and oppression between economic groups.
According to Marx, labouring for others leads humans to be alienated, or cut off, from themselves, from each other, from the ability to follow their own productive pursuits, and from being fully human.3 Marx viewed this system as inherently exploitative—an argument made more forceful by the reality that, in societies like Industrial Revolution-era England, factory owners often mistreated their workers.4
Biblically, the answer to exploitation calls for humans to return to God’s Word, which both commands and provides a foundation for upholding justice, practicing righteousness, and loving our neighbours—a solution made possible through Jesus. But according to Marx, the solution is revolution. Marx believed human freedom can only be attained when workers realize their oppressed status and revolt, seizing power from the oppressors “by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.”5
This revolution, Marx believed, would coincide with the abolition of “bourgeois” institutions like organized religion6 and nuclear families.7 The result was supposed to be an atheistic, communistic heaven on earth,8 where everyone would have equal access to society’s resources—and nobody would own “bourgeois private property.”9 Summarizing these views, Marx wrote,
The positive transcendence of private property as the appropriation of human life, is therefore the positive transcendence of all estrangement—that is to say, the return of man from religion, family, state, etc., to his human, i.e., social, existence.10
In other words, Marx believed that by “freeing” people from property, religion, family, and government, communism would make people fully human.
Biblically, Marx was right in recognizing that humanity is broken, estranged from being who we’re meant to be. But while God’s Word reveals that humanity’s root problem is sin, requiring a Saviour, Jesus,11 Marx attributed humanity’s problem to the division of labour, requiring revolution. Marx ultimately preached a completely unbiblical gospel for humanity’s supposed redemption—a gospel founded on an evolutionary, materialistic worldview.12
This unbiblical worldview enabled Marx to redefine his own version of morality. After all, if we evolved without God, then we are not accountable to a Creator. A biblical view also presupposes principles which Marxism actively fights against, including private property ownership (e.g., “You shall not steal”13), nuclear family units,14 and allegiance to God’s Word above man’s word.15 By rejecting God’s Word, Marx developed his own religion where man creates himself through revolutionary action.16
By rejecting God’s Word, Marx developed his own religion where man creates himself through revolutionary action.
As the twentieth century unfolded, various takes on Marx’s false religion precipitated the deaths of millions17 and led to losses of fundamental rights and freedoms for humans created in God’s image.18 The history of Marxian-inspired communism reminds us that no solution to humanity’s problems—even genuine problems—can ultimately succeed if it is based on the wrong foundation. And Marx’s solution is no exception. Unlike the foundation of God’s Word, Marxism’s evolutionary foundation does not provide a basis for the justice, morality, and human rights which Marxism supposedly pursues.19 The consequences are consistently disastrous. Yet we’re seeing similar ideas being pushed again, with brands of neo-Marxism gaining rapid traction today.20
To understand the goals of neo-Marxism, let’s backtrack nearly 100 years to a prison cell in southern Italy. Here, we find a man named Antonio Gramsci, former leader of the Communist Party of Italy. He sits before a notebook, filling its pages with writings that apply Marx’s ideas to culture in ways that will radically influence Western society.
Because Marx’s beliefs that revolutions would inevitably happen as workers awoke to their oppressed status didn’t unfold the way Marx had prophesied, later thinkers like Gramsci focused on seeding revolutions not by political force, but by cultural subversion. Gramsci applied Marx’s ideas of conflict between economic groups to describe conflict between cultural groups, where groups with the most mainstream influence (say, in today’s terms, European Christian males) have power to dominate others.21 Gramsci called this power “cultural hegemony.”22
The key to political revolution, according to Gramsci, begins with capturing the culture.23 This cultural transformation requires subverting the institutions of “civil society,” including church, media, and schools, which Gramsci believed serve to keep oppressive systems in power.24 (Notably, other neo-Marxists also emphasize disrupting the God-ordained institution of family for the same reason.25) Meanwhile, the media26 and public education systems27 can be harnessed to influence a generation of new revolutionaries which will overturn the old social order. In all of this, Gramsci’s explicit goal was to establish a new religion of Marxist secular humanism.28
Today, we don’t need to look far to see how successfully these ideas are taking hold in classrooms, culture, and even church circles. Bible-believing Christians are being painted as the oppressive majority which must be overthrown, paving the way for a “progressive” society founded on evolutionary humanism. Now more than ever, Christians must be able to understand what (neo-)Marxism teaches, to think biblically and critically about neo-Marxist claims, and to know practical ways to respond.
Bible-believing Christians are being painted as the oppressive majority which must be overthrown, paving the way for a “progressive” society founded on evolutionary humanism.
That’s why I embarked on a new investigative backpacking mission—this time, to trace the history and consequences of Marxism. I plan to journey through parts of Europe (and possibly other regions), working from locations that are significant to the history of Marxism and its roots in evolutionary secular humanism. I’ll also be seeking Christians from former Soviet and Eastern Bloc countries to interview so they can share practical insights with churches today.
Along the way, I plan to release short videos to my social media pages, while also collecting footage and materials for longer videos and blog posts that I can use to create resources for helping Christians respond biblically to new brands of Marxism. These resources won’t be exhaustive but are meant to provide an introductory overview with practical applications, tying in real-world stories and scenes. After all, it’s one thing to read about people like Marx, Gramsci, and the thinkers before them in textbooks. It’s another to see the places they lived, the universities where they lectured, and the individuals they impacted.
I don’t yet know 100% where I’ll be going or who I’ll meet as my (ridiculously heavy) backpack and I make our way across the continent. But that’s what makes this journey an adventure—trusting God to guide every step. Stay tuned!
To follow the unfolding journey and access its associated resources as they’re released, you can find my social media pages (Facebook and Instagram) @pengleraig, or keep an eye on my blog. Thank you for coming along!
Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry, dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.