Pursuing Discernment - Part 1 - "Class Conflict:" Marxism vs. Gospel-Centered

I've stated that I fully support "Black Lives Matter" as a sentence, but have real reservations about the organization that has taken that name.  (CLICK HERE for that post.)  My chief reservation with the organization is it's "Marxist worldview."  So what do I mean by that?  Let me start by digging into the most important distinctive of Marxism.

“Class Conflict” is the engine that drives history in the worldview of Karl Marx.  It was a perspective that was developed from the “Dialectical Method” of G.F. Hegel in the 19th century.

For Marx, the conflict was between economic classes – specifically the wealthy, capitalist Bourgeoisie who own the means of production and the working class of farmers and laborers called the Proletariat.  Remember this distinction: it was the class identification that counted, not the people who made up the classes.  The Bourgeoisie were oppressors as a class, with no consideration of different behaviors or character qualities of any one person in the class.  Likewise, with the oppressed Proletariat.  Group identity mattered more than individual character, choices and personhood.

Marxism as political philosophy was first played out in history with Bolshevik Revolution in Russia beginning in 1917.  That was not a pretty event, whether at the direction of Lenin, Stalin or others.  The Marxist "class conflict" perspective later drove revolutions throughout Eastern Europe, China, Cambodia and other places, all with similar results.

After World War I, there was an evolution of Marxist thought.  The groups thought to be in conflict might not be only economic in nature.  Instead, they could be racial, or ethnic, or sexual.  The principle that remained though was conflict between groups and group identity overruled any personal characteristics.  CLICK HERE for a book review that traces this development. 

So we arrive at “BLM-the organization” where the world is viewed through the Marxist lens of groups and conflict.

The conversation is about “blackness” and “whiteness,” not about “black people” and “white people.”  At first, I was baffled by conversation about “black bodies.”  But the group conflict perspective is hardly concerned with persons in any group.  It’s the group that matters.  “Persons” are just bodies in the group.

I was surprised to read on the BLM organization's website about their commitment to "disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement," until I remembered the history of the 20th century.  Every Marxist revolution has undermined the family because family identity distracts from the class identity.  What mattered for Marx was that a person was part of the "worker class" rather than a "Smith."  All other identities - ethnic (hence the focus on "international"), religious (hence the atheism), cultural, all! - must be erased or moved to a position of insignificance for the sake of the movement and the conflict.

By contrast, a biblical and “Gospel-centered” worldview recognizes persons do belong to and are indeed shaped by the groups of which they are a part.  For example, Ruth was an individual and a woman (a gender identity group) and a Moabite (a non-Israelite, ethnic/cultural identity group).  She made choices though, to place her trust in the LORD of Israel, depart with her Israelite mother-in-law Naomi and move her life to Israel at the death of her husband.  These choices transformed her group identities and she entered into the family line of God’s Messiah!  She had various group identities, but those could be altered by her personal agency and decisions.

Not so with the various Marxist group identities.  There can be a shift in power from one group to the next – when the oppressed Proletariat overcome the oppressor Bourgeoisie in classic terms and divisions for example – but never a shift of group identity.  As a person "born into whiteness,” that identity can never be changed by me or for me.  There can only be a shift in power between my oppressive group and some other oppressed group.

Repentance, Reconciliation and Restitution are terms and practices that belong to biblical, Gospel-centered faith, but have no ground in a Marxist worldview.  These practices are behaviors of individual transformation that have social consequences and expression.  That is why "BLM-the organization" and Gospel-centered faith have contrasting and conflicting strategies and goals as they pursue racial justice.  Biblical justice and Marxist justice are two different, and I believe conflicting, ideals.

I’d love to interact with you more on some of these observations, as well as listen to your response.  if you would like to pursue further conversation, then contact me through the church, and let's talk.  I would be anxious to listen and consider, as well as dig deeper with you into my own reading.  Grace Abounding!