The loudest Christian factions in the US have made themselves puppets of the powerful for decades, resulting in one of the largest generational shifts against Christianity in this country’s history. Thankfully, there are those who take the second greatest commandment seriously, and are organizing to push back against greed, in love of one’s neighbor.
Matt McManus in In These Times:
The Institute for Christian Socialism (ICS), founded in the late 2010s by scholars and activists, is one of a growing number of left Christian organizations to emerge or be revived over the past decade, from radical Black churches to LGBTQ-affirming congregations…
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Economic anthropologist Karl Polyani traces the roots of early “utopian” socialism to 17th-century Quakers, whose reading of scripture foregrounded equality and collective self-help. In the 19th and 20th centuries, forms of “ethical” Christian socialism and liberation theology flourished in Europe and Latin America. In the United States, Christian socialism has shaped the Left from the Civil War to Eugene Debs’ Socialist Party, from the civil rights movement to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). The most influential U.S. Christian socialist, Martin Luther King Jr., combined his demands for racial equality and economic democracy with biblical moral authority — most notably in the mass anti-poverty crusade he was building when he was assassinated.
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Just as there is no singular socialist movement, there is no singular “Christian socialism.” But its history proves that political religiosity has never been the sole province of conservatives. As the Right promotes new fusions of church and state, Christian socialism provides a much-needed corrective, reminding us that it’s the poor and the meek who inherit the earth.