There are some Christian communists who use liberation theology and some biblical passages to inspire revolutionary sentiment and class consciousness in the masses. Liberation theology is a useful tool as I am a new religious movement leader myself. It would be very strange for me to say anything different. However when a holy text such as the bible has so many seemingly contradictory sets of values and viewpoints, it can theoretically be used to justify whatever position you could conceivably think of. This is why there are so many cults who make a game out of distorting or cherry picking whatever teachings they want, for whatever purpose they have in mind.

And besides all of this, you are combining religious beliefs with socialism that everybody is unlikely to follow or believe. Christian communism alienates muslims, buddhists, hindu, and especially atheist communists who reject western worldviews in order to better serve the class interests of the proletariat. You are basically diminishing the appeal of socialism by adding in religious tenets (or even aesthetic) that are highly unlikely to be palatable to the majority of the population.

Another challenge that presents to you in any form of religious socialism, is opposition from members of that same religion. Islamic socialism is opposed by radical islamists in those areas, and bible thumping alt-right people are likely to behave in similar ways if Christian communism was ever implemented.

In the end, you might be way better off if instead of combining Christianity or any religion with socialism, you instead started a new belief system that incorporates liberation theology and class conscious ideas for your people. This may sound weird to us in the west, but Ghost Dance, Rastafari, Cheondoism, and Haitian Vodou are all spiritual practices done by oppressed people as ways of ideological resistance, or these practices may have been used by Maroons or Escaped slaves in order to facilitate revolutions and win their freedom against colonial masters. Because America is a society that integrates any religious traditions or belief systems into capitalism eventually, a form of liberation theology must be made which does not promote its own capitalization, rejects all forms of capitalism, and does not allow the people to be satisfied with minor concessions. It is difficult, but those who seek to use liberation theology should look into this and carefully think about what beliefs can be spread to the masses in order to wake them up to the true cause of their exploitation.

  • Charming OwlOPM
    link
    22 years ago

    I would say so too. Latin American society is usually majority catholic due to the history with Spanish colonialism, so there are less religious minorities there than in the US or other religiously diverse societies. As long as the indigenous people of South America aren’t being evangelized or persecuted I don’t see an issue with their form of liberation theology.