First and foremost, do not judge all Christians by the words of a few self-aggrandizing hucksters you see on television. Would you want Marxism to be judged by the words and actions of fringe groups who call themselves Marxist but who in fact twist the words of Marx and Lenin to suit their own agenda? Of course not! So please do not judge all of Christendom by the actions of those who are more concerned with filling their own pockets than reaching out to others in a Christ-like manner.



What is the Prosperity Gospel? It is a heresy within the Christianity that states God wants his followers to be healthy and wealthy. This heresy teaches that the only thing that keeps you from receiving all the abundant blessings of health and wealth that God wants to bestow upon you is your lack of faith. If you just had enough faith, then you could draw down these blessings from heaven and you would be without want. How do you show God you have enough faith? You do it by offering a “sacrificial” monetary gift to his church (call the 800 number at the bottom of your screen and have your credit cards ready).



Republicans love the proponents of this false gospel and often will have a prosperity gospel preacher give the invocation at their campaign rallies. Think about it. If you can get unemployed or under-employed workers to put their hope into this faux-Christian teaching instead of in gathering together and organizing to demand their rights, then you have provided a great service to your corporate sponsors. The Christian Right is quick to quote out of context Marx’s statement about religion being the “opiate of the masses,” but in actuality they hope the prosperity gospel will indeed be that opiate.



The Christian Scriptures, in both the Old and New Testaments, teach that those who consider themselves to be God’s people should be all about meeting the needs of the poor and insisting on fair treatment and honest wages for workers (for a short list of Bible verses highlighting these teachings see Jim Lane’s Marx, Jesus and Capitalism on the Political Affairs blog at http://www.politicalaffairs.net/marx-jesus-and-capitalism/). Many of these verses should make corporate CEO’s squirm in their pews if they were preached honestly and courageously by pastors today. Consider the following as an example: “You rich people should cry and weep! Terrible things are going to happen to you. Your treasures have already rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your money has rusted, and the rust will be evidence against you, as it burns your body like fire. Yet you keep on storing up wealth in these last days. You refused to pay the people who worked in your fields, and now their unpaid wages are shouting out against you. The Lord All-Powerful has surely heard the cries of the workers who harvested your crops. While here on earth, you have thought only of filling your own stomachs and having a good time. But now you are like fat cattle on their way to be butchered” (James 5:1-5 CEV).



Rather than judge Christianity by the words of twenty-first century preachers of greed, I would urge my Marxist friends to put more weight in the words of Christian theologians who wrote in the first several centuries after Christ. The following are much more representative of true Christian teaching than anything you will hear in a prosperity gospel church:



St. Jerome: "All riches come from iniquity, and unless one has lost, another cannot gain. Hence that common opinion seems to be very true, 'the rich man is unjust, or the heir to an unjust one.' Opulence is always the result of theft, if not committed by the actual possessor, then by his predecessor."



St. Ambrose: "How far will your mad lusts take you, ye rich people, till you dwell alone on the earth? Why do you at once turn nature out of doors, and claim the possession of her for your own selves? The land was made for all; why do you rich men claim it as your private property?"



"Nature produced common property. Robbery made private property."



"It is not with your own wealth that you give alms to the poor, but with a fraction of their own which you give back; for you are usurping for yourself something meant for the common good of all. The earth is for everyone, not only for the rich."



St. John Chrysostom: "It is not for lack of miracles that the church is stagnant; it is because we have forsaken the angelic life of Pentecost, and fallen back on private property. If we lived as they did, with all things common, we should soon convert the whole world without any need of miracles at all."



"For 'mine' and 'thine' -- those chilly words which introduce innumerable wars into the world -- should be eliminated from that holy Church . . .The poor would not envy the rich because there would be no rich. Neither would the poor be despised by the rich, for there would be no poor. All things would be in common."



"This is the rule of the most perfect Christianity, its most exact definition, its highest point, namely, the seeking of the common good . . . for nothing can so make a person an imitator of Christ as caring for his neighbors."



St. Basil: "When someone strips a man of his clothes we call him a thief. And one who might clothe the naked and does not -- should he not be given the same name? The bread in your board belongs to the hungry: the cloak in your wardrobe belongs to the naked, the shoes you let rot belong to the barefoot; the money in your vaults belongs to the destitute."



"While we try to amass wealth, make piles of money, get hold of the land as our real property, overtop one another in riches, we have palpably cast off justice, and lost the common good. I should like to know how any man can be just, who is deliberately aiming to get out of someone else what he wants for himself."



These teachings from the earliest Christian theologians should resonate with today’s Marxists, for they show that true followers of Christ, like the followers of Marx, share a deep concern for all humanity and especially for those who are exploited by the rich and powerful.