Consistency of positive thoughts - to make the world better
Christianity
and communism: parallels and differences
It is characteristic of the human conception of
social things that currents of thought, built at different levels
against each other, often have many basic ideas and starting
points that are largely similar. This also applies to various
religions and denominations, which, misused for the interests of
the rich and powerful, cost millions of human lives, although
some of them differed only in insignificant details. Enlightened
philosophers and religious thinkers, after all, point to the equivalence
of all religions and the folly of any religious
dogmatism and fundamentalism. As the prominent Indian guru Saji
Baba claimed: "All paths are true".
From an objective, rational point of view, we could add to this:
all religious paths are analogous - in truth (in
moral orientation), as well as in lies and errors
(dogmas)...
Parallels of Basic
Ideas
The Good News of Christianity
Christianity, whose central legend (forming the content of the
New Testament) is the birth, action, crucifixion, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ , grew out of older
legends about the historical journey of the Jewish people
described in the Old Testament.
The allegorical messages of the Old
Testament and especially the New Testament (good news - the
gospel of Jesus Christ) reflected the desires of ordinary people
for an honest life and a just order in society. The early
Christian church was very revolutionary for his
time and "leftist" (as we would say now) - it promoted
the equality of all people , at least before
God. Therefore, she was initially cruelly persecuted by the
ruling class .
"Rather
camel pass through the eye of a needle, than a rich man goes into
the kingdom of heaven."
"The chasm that separates a rich man from his neighbors in
life will separate him from God forever."
"It cannot be said that the rich exhale more air or consume
more light. Everything really important is evenly and evenly
distributed" (St.
John Chrysostom).
In today's terms: Jesus
was a socialist pacifist...
Ideas of freedom,
democracy, socialism, communism
Also, the ideas of freedom, democracy,
socialism, and communism (though not initially called that) were
expressions of the age-old innermost desires and dreams of
ordinary people, oppressed and humiliated. However, these ideas
could not be formulated and promoted by these simple people
themselves for a long time. They were kept in ignorance,
subordination and "fear of God" (ie in obligatory
respect for the nobility, in superstitions and religious darkness
- lords and rulers are here from God). Their thoughts and desires
only timidly "sprouted to the light" and were more
accurately expressed by enlightened scholars
whose "hearts is inclined to the people." They were, on
the one hand, those who did not forget their simple origins, and,
on the other hand, some educated people from the richer classes,
who had a more noble nature and took seriously Christian love and
compassion for their neighbors.
These efforts for a more just world order
culminated in France in 1789-1794 with the Great French
Revolution under the slogan equality, freedom,
brotherhood . This revolution, while costing many lives
(often unnecessarily) and temporarily suppressed, has played a
crucial role in modern history: it has triggered the fall
of feudal domination and paved the way for the development
of society in the spirit of freedom, democracy,
scientific and technical progress and social progress.
Progressive thinkers of the 19th century
increasingly felt that the ideas of the Great French Revolution
needed to be taken even further: not to be satisfied with the
formal civil liberties and democracy of a capitalist society that
could in fact be enjoyed by only a small proportion of
middle-class and upper-class property. The ideas of universal
democracy and classless society were
pregnantly formulated in their works by K. Marx and B. Engels in
particular (the relevant philosophical-social direction is
referred to as Marxism). The parallels with Christian ideas are
obvious here: add the fictitious "equality of people
before God" to the real (authentic) "equality of people before people".
Deformation and Abuse
of Christianity
When feudal rulers realized that the Christian religion
could be used as a means of controlling the masses for
"voluntary" devotional service to the ruling class, not
only did it cease to be persecuted, but Christianity gradually
became state religion for
almost 1,000 years. and the Catholic Church gradually took over
the role of ideological patronage of the feudal dominion
. This was accompanied by the abuses and distortions of
the Christian faith, the decline of the morals of the
high Catholic clergy, greed, dogmatism, intolerance
and cruel crimes against free-thinking people.
Simple-minded pious
people tend to believe that God is on their side and is against
those "others" who profess faith in another God, or
just another way of believing in the same God. This foolish
idea, misused by the rich and powerful, has cost many
millions of lives in religious wars. The promotion of "only
and right gods" is accompanied by streams of blood, murder,
and unfortunately even children, who do not even know how
senseless gods their parents, respectively great-great ...-
grandparents, they invented.
Classical religion deprives a person of
common sense, makes him an idiot who must believe in
unsubstantiated and illogical phenomena and legends - a
frightened man to whom he forces the illusory crutches of some afterlife
hopes.. In this sense, religion appears to be a
characterless demagoguery of cunning
hypocritical heralds of the "words of God," often in
the service of oppressors ...
A certain redress in the
Catholic Church could begin only after the fall of
feudalism , when the church gradually lost its
privileged position. This helped to inspire the
Church and return to some of its original values. The Second
Vatican Council in 1962-65, convened by the enlightened
Pope John 23, advanced the furthest in this direction. At this
council, progressive tendencies to overcome dogmatism,
"opening to the world" ("aggiornamento
") and ecumenism were enforced.
Deformation of the
ideas of socialism and communism
Deformation progressive ideas of socialism and communism
(these deformations often resulted in
totalitarian deviations from democracy) have
their roots already in the program formation of these ideas: it
was a struggle with hostility of the rich and powerful
who are unscrupulous means trying these ideas suppress
already in the very begining. Thus, the pronounced antagonism
and desire for retaliation that erupted with each uprising or
revolution gradually developed .
The next stage of deformation of
progressive ideas came only in the period of heroic
attempts to implement the ideas of people's democracy
and socialism in the 20th century in some countries. It was first
in Russia afterThe Great October Socialist Revolution ,
which resulted in the emergence of the Confederate Soviet Union,
after World War II, also in some countries of Central and Eastern
Europe. Here, after the tragic experience of the war, people
longed for a fundamental change in the social order, and
therefore political confidence was given to the socialist,
workers' and communist parties. These parties, made up mostly of
politically inexperienced and unprepared people, often "did
not carry" the suddenly acquired power, and their leaders
committed many setbacks and personal disputes,
which sometimes resulted in crimes (such as
judicial murders *). Later, in the 1960s
and 1980s, incapacitated, selfish, and beneficial people often
held leading positions in all spheres of social life and the
economy; they were then one of the driving forces of the coup in
1989.
*) The other side sometimes resorted to
simple (non-judicial) murders; it is a disgraceful filth, now
that some "heroes" are trying to defend, for example,
the vulgar murders of innocent people committed by the
Mašines in our country!
Hostility between the
Catholic Church and the Ideas of Socialism
The deep-rooted hostile
relationship between the Church (especially Roman Catholic) and
the ideas of socialism and communism has the same origins as the
aforementioned antagonism with the rich and powerful in feudalism
and capitalism. With the exception of the progressive period of
the early Christian Church, the church hierarchy was for many
centuries completely sold out to the interests of the
rich and powerful. Especially in the Middle Ages, the
Catholic Church served as an ideological patron of the
feudal dictatorship, for which it received abundant material
pleasures. It was, of course, completely contradictory with the true mission of the
Church and with the teachings of Jesus Christ, who preached
poverty and fought against selfishness and greed: "My
kingdom is not of this world"; "It is more a camel to
go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to go to the
kingdom of heaven!"
There were also many
honorable, selfless, and humble priests in the
Catholic Church who truly took their spiritual vocation as a service
to their neighbors and thus to God. Many of them
accepted progressive ideas because they were in accordance with
the true teachings of Christ and promised them a healing of the
spiritual life. However, they were "not heard", they
were not allowed to publicly announce their thoughts, otherwise
they were harshly persecuted.
One of them was Bernardo Bolzano (*1781),
a prominent professor, mathematician, philosopher and priest,
from whose thoughts we can quote a short quote: "Rather,
doubt any other truth - the divine origin of our holy faith, the
immortality of the soul, or even the existence of God in heaven -
to question for a moment the essence of the equality of all
people and the eternally unchanging obligation that follows: to
love everyone as oneself! The time will come, and I say with
complete confidence, when people will loathe war, the senseless
attempt to prove their right by the sword The time will come when
all the thousands of differences in rank and dam between people
who cause so much evil will be brought to the proper limits, when
everyone will treat their neighbor like a brother with a brother
.... The time will come when no one will think that he
deserves respect and honor because he has taken away so many
possessions for himself as an individual that would be enough to
satisfy the needs of thousands. ... A person who
parasitizes on human society, even if he is of the most noble
origin and occupies the highest position, deserves only our
contempt. ... "
For his humanistic and enlightenment ideas, he was persecuted,
censored and expelled from the university by the authorities and
the Church.
Even after the fall of feudalism,
the Church could not free herself from dogmatic prejudices and
claims to government, prosperity, and supremacy; Church leaders
were generally hostile to all ideas of equality and a fairer
organization of society. More recently, Pope Pius XII was
especially notorious in this regard. (pontif..1939-1958)
, which became very treacherous his
mission - he even supported Hitler's fascism *) and, together
with some similarly oriented church dignitaries from the Curia,
sharply opposed any peace or dialogue between the Catholic Church
and new currents of thought, especially the newly emerging
people's democratic institutions. After the end of World War II,
the "Cold War" soon began, in which the conservative
circles of the Vatican under the leadership of Pius XII. very
actively involved (including "excommunication" from the
church of all persons who sympathized with the socialist
movement). This then-ruling dogmatic set of the Vatican has a
large share of complicity in the animosity
between church and state in some countries (along
with undemocratic practices in these countries)., which was paid for by a number of priests who had to
go to prison or exile. Fortunately, the successor of Pius XII, John
XXIII. (pontif. 1958-1963), on the contrary, was one of
the most enlightened popes in modern history,
which significantly improved the relations of the Roman Catholic
Church with the progressive world.
*) Pius XII supported fascism as Cardinal Pacelli before the war,
when he was the Vatican envoy and the apostolic nuncio in Germany
**). Then he was elected pope, during the war in 1941 he welcomed
the aggression against the Soviet Union, which claimed the most
millions of lives (he considered the offensive war against the
USSR as a campaign to "defend Western Christianity").
Some representatives of the Catholic Church was then at the end
of World War II. connected to a conspiratorial network of SS
members, which helped war criminals to flee from
justice; in the Vatican, these nazis were then issued with false
passports. The driving force behind these and other shamefulness
, which persisted until the end of the pontificate of Pius XII,
was the distinct right-wing orientation of the then pope and his
prelates from the Catholic clergy, their opposition to
social progress and the resulting sympathy for Hitler's
fascism against communism (and Western
democracy, which also does not favor dogmatic clericalism). At the same time, they did not mind that the Nazis
murdered millions of Christian believers, as well as several
thousand Catholic priests. These clerical circles considered the
communist and socialist movements to be the greatest threat to
ecclesiastical domination (greater than fascism) and were willing
to unite with anyone to liquidate it ...
**) More precisely, Pacelli-Pius did not
support the original left-wing (pseudo) socialist and measures
the atheistic part of Nazi teaching, but only the right-wing
part , which turned to anti-communism
("anti-Bolshevism"). He also supported the great german
pangerman belief in the hegemony of the German nation and its
right to expansion and domination above other
nations. In such an oriented "strong" Germany, he saw a
counterweight to the spread of influences from the East. The
anti-Semitism and silence on the Holocaust that he is often
accused of is not entirely clear (he did not even have to have
enough objective information about the horrific extent of these
crimes). Based on indoctrination and partly on personal
experience from Germany (where he met with the rampage of
revolutionary militias), he considered the socialist and
communist movements to be the greatest enemy of the
church estate and was willing to support anything to
destroy it. And maybe in the belief that it serves the church,
which is to be entrusted to run ..? ..
In summary, the political decision-making of Pius XII. it was
subject to a simple formula: it supported all what recorded
anti-communism and the conservative "values" the
organization of society; he hated and severely repressed
everything connected with the ideas of progress, socialism,
communism, and similar social reforms. In other matters, perhaps
he followed the principles of Christian teaching. And because he
was a skilled diplomat, many people admired and recognized him
...
It is therefore not
surprising that when the socialist or communist parties came to
power in some countries, these contradictions turned into open hostility
between church and state (in our
country it was especially in the 50s). This
time the tasks were exchanged: "representatives of the
people" settled accounts with the church. However, this was
not against the real perpetrators of the church's crimes in the
past (most of whom had not lived for a long
time, their followers were abroad, such as the Vatican) and foreign practitioners of political intrigues, but
often persecuted by priests and members of the orders, who they
did not directly quilty ...
What is compliance
possible ?
From the point of view of the above-mentioned parallels
of basic ideas, the marked contradictions between the Christian
Church and the socialist movement (which is now in decline -
perhaps it can be hoped that only temporarily) seem unfortunate
and paradoxical. Some agreement and reconciliation could perhaps
be achieved if both sides abandoned dogmatism, prejudice and the
escalation of controversial points, and rather emphasized what united
them and how they could complement each
other :
- The main task of the socialist and
communist movement is not to apply militant atheism, but
to strive for a fairer human order and
to build a solidarity-based society of free and
equal citizens , regardless of their religious
or atheistic focus.
- The task of the true Church of Jesus
Christ is not to amass wealth and to serve the rich and
powerful of this world, but to spread the gospel
of Christ, proclaim love of neighbor,
tolerance, mutual respect and the dignity of equal people
"created in the image of God."
With a bit of utopian exaggeration, it can be said that
if all Christians began to truly live by
the ethical standards of their faith, they would make the
greatest revolution in history (more
consistent than the Great French Revolution or the
Russian-Soviet Great october socialistic revolution in
1917, without unnecessary bloodshed).
Both parties and all people
of good will would benefit from this harmony. That such
harmony is possible is shown, for example, by the work of popular
priests in South America, who, in the spirit of "liberation
theology", sought not only evangelization but also
the social upliftment and social awareness of Native Americans in
the spirit of progressive ideals of equality, freedom and
brotherhood. In Czechoslovakia, in addition to the
above-mentioned ideas of Bolzano , in recent times, have
been interesting from this point of view, for example, the ideas
of P. Josef Plojhar (1902-1981) (if
we disregard some controversial points of his political work), who for many years was chairman of the peaceful
association of clergy "Pacem in terris"
:
§ Twice a bright light came from the East, which shone
into the hearts of mankind. For the first time, the time has come
for the darknesses of reason and heart to be frightened and to
touch heaven and earth. This was the first time the light of the Ex
Oriente lux shone from the East when the star of Bethlehem
heralded the birth of supreme love. And for the second time, the
wonderful light of Ex Oriente lux came to human society
when the glow of the Great October Socialist Revolution appeared.
Some would like to tell us that these two lights, these two
fires, must absorb each other. No! The flames combine in a rich
heat and in this heat of both flames from the East we forge a new
slogan: Ex oriente Pax- Peace from the East! All people
of good will must shake hands for this work to save human
happiness. If we succeed in this work, then in the new dignified
and socially just world, the ideal, life- oriented word
of the Psalmist of the Lord will take place: " Justicia
et Pax osculate sunt " - "Justice and peace to
kiss". §
RNDr. Vojtech Ullmann