in philosophy, and (b) preoccupied en tirely with things —items made of mat ter—as far as values are concerned. Bread, butter, clothing, cars, homes, are the real things. Heaven, immortality, absolute right and wrong, salvation, God, Christ, are but fictions. (2). Revolution. Progress is by con flict! Communism envisions a world state. The world cannot be half com munistic and half capitalistic, therefore, there must be one great conflict in which the deathblow is dealt capitalism. Con sider these words: The fight cannot ultimately he won until the control of the agen cies of production has been wrested from the hands of private owners, and until the bourgeois state has been completely crushed. And here history has shown, says Marx, that no class ever surrendered its power and property without violent resist ance. The workers must not be de luded by the vain hope that capital ism will consent to its own destruc tion. When finally threatened, it will use every agency at its com mand . . . to keep itself in power. Workers must therefore be prepared for a final revolution, a mass up rising which will end in the extinc tion of the capitalistic state.2 Its Conflict with Christianity .Since some so-called Christian men have spoken quite favorably about com munism, are we right in rejecting and fearing it? Are we prejudiced or are we engaged in a genuine warfare? It is true that there are many Christians in Russia living under their form of government who must disagree violently with the basic philosophy of commun ism. (1). Soul liberty. In that there is an official Russian philosophy—dialectical materialism—there is an official view about religion, and life. In almost every other country of the world, politics is one thing, religion and philosophy are another. In our Republican party are idealists, realists, Catholics, Jews, and Protestants. The same is true of the Democratic party. The basic document is the constitution which does not pre scribe any official philosophy or religion. Now,. the historic Protestant view, granted by all to have been most con sistently championed by the Baptists, but now part and parcel of most de nominations, is that God has given gov ernments the right to rule and wield the sword, and the church the right to preach the gospel. The church is not to use the sword; and the state is not to wear the cloth. The direct corollary to this is that each man has the soul liberty to decide his religious convictions. There fore, any government that (a) proposes an official religion, a” d (b) thereby eliminating soul liberty, is anti-Chris tian, and on this point must be opposed. (Continued on Page 16) T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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® HE rise of communism from a theory in books to the position of second world power in less than thirty years is one of the most unusual events in the entire scope of world his tory. Communism has become a world wide scare, a daily press item, and a menace to the Christian church. What is it? Communism is generally misunder stood because it is considered to be either a politico-economic system, or an athe istic philosophy. Neither of these defi nitions penetrates to the root of the matter. Communism is not simply bellig erent atheism, nor is it the poor m
Secondly, instead of believing that the conflicts of history were responsible for greater development in religion, art and philosophy, as Hegel did, Marx recog nized the conflicts of history only as economic conflicts. He considered feudal ism necessary as the successor to the system of the Roman Empire. Feudal ism fought to hold off capitalism, but
Spring in I/uxembourg capitalism came. Capitalism fights to hold off socialism, but socialism is now coming. Socialism will fight to hold off communism— finally realized when all political, economic, and racial conflicts are resolved. Russians do not claim to have communism now, but rather the step between communism and capitalism —socialism with a dictator. But what are the consequences of. Marx’s revamping of Hegel’s idea of progress through conflict? First, history is to be considered pri marily a record of economics and poli tics; second, the story of the conflict between opposing economic forces; and third, an account of violence as a means of overthrowing existing order. Its Concepts (1). Materialism. Communism is ma terialism, which means that all there is in the universe is matter, and its func tions. Above nature there is nothing; hence, God and religion are out; moral ity as based on future reward or judg ment is out; immortality is out. Com munism is thus (a) officially atheistic
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