Are Capitalism and Christianity Worse than Socialism?

[Note: Originally published in Chapter 9 of Modern Marxism: A Guide for Christians in a Woke New World.]

Objection 5: “Capitalism and religion have done, and continue to do, more damage than socialism ever could."

Claim:

Capitalism and religion (especially Judeo-Christianity) motivate immense evil—from historical examples of war, slavery, and violent colonization practices to current systems of discrimination, environmental destruction, and exploitative labor conditions. Capitalism also creates artificial “needs” that distract people from pursuing liberation from these harms. Although evils have also been committed in the name of Marxism, Judeo-Christianity and capitalism are the real enemies to defeat for humanity to make progress.

Quick answer:

First, we can agree that evil is a problem. From a biblical worldview, Christians recognize wrongdoings, exploitation, and hypocrisy as grievous. It’s grievous when people who identify as Christians commit great wrongs. It’s grievous when people try citing Scripture—however incorrectly—to rationalize those wrongs. And it’s grievous when people abuse capitalism by idolizing money, by entangling themselves and others in the “deceitfulness of riches” (Mark 4:19), or by prioritizing profits over God’s image bearers.

With that common ground established, let’s back up and think about worldview starting points. When we’re evaluating a worldview based on its consequences, we need to look at the results of applying that worldview consistently—not inconsistently. Doing so requires examining what the worldview teaches wholistically and considering what happens when people consistently live out those teachings. So, let’s think about the consistent application of a biblical worldview in contrast to Marxism-based worldviews.

As chapter 2 explains, a biblical worldview provides the foundation for truth, morality, human value, justice, and rights in the first place. God’s Word lets us recognize that the issue behind problematic practices in capitalist societies is sin. Scripture also establishes mandates, principles, and paradigms that best enable human flourishing, while adding “guardrails” to prevent abuses of these practices.

For example, passages throughout Scripture support the idea of people privately owning the resources they’ve worked for, inherited, or received as a gift, recognizing that God is the ultimate owner.1 Scripture teaches how to use these resources for good—for instance, by practicing generosity and hospitality—while also forbidding sinful misuses of them, such as greed, covetousness, discontentment, bribery, usury, extortion, exploitation, oppression, and idolatry. Professing Christians who acted hypocritically in these regards were being inconsistent with a biblical worldview. Similarly, people who have killed or abused others in the name of Christianity were acting contrary to Jesus’ teachings. But Christians who have sought to uphold the value of life, reform exploitative economic practices, and “love their neighbors as themselves” acted consistently with their worldview.2

In contrast, chapter 2 examined how the secular worldview behind Karl Marx’s thinking lacked a solid foundation for truth, meaning, morality, justice, and human value. Secular worldviews allow for redefining morality in ways that permit abuses against innocent3 human lives—while being consistent with secularism. For example, neo-Marxism allows for redefining truth and morality so that any violence that changes society’s power balance in favor of oppressed groups can be considered “good.” A similar redefinition of morality enabled the French Revolutionaries to slay thousands of people in the name of “the greater good,” as chapter three recounts. Atheistic communist regimes throughout the twentieth century likewise committed atrocities in line with their beliefs.

While these historical revolutionaries were not always acting consistently with some of the ideals they espoused, they nonetheless acted consistently with their secular worldviews, which did not provide a stable foundation for those ideals. A biblical worldview, by supplying that foundation along with “guardrails” against abuses, remains society’s hope. God’s Word offers the basis for achieving earthly progress. And most importantly, Scripture reveals the way to eternal redemption through Jesus.

Western civilization is rapidly changing. Society no longer tolerates biblical thinking but views Christians as oppressors who must be “cancelled.” How do these trends trace back to a false gospel rooted in Marxism, and how can Christians respond?

That’s the question behind the new book, Modern Marxism: A Guide for Christians in a Woke New World. When Christian resources address neo-Marxism through a biblical lens, a few common objections are bound to follow. Quick answers to nine of these objections are available in Appendix B of Modern Marxism, as well as in this blog series. While these answers are not exhaustive, the goal is to portray each objection briefly but accurately, sketching a reasoned response in biblical gentleness.