Natural Law: An Introduction, Part 6

By Nicholas K. Meriwether

Natural Law and Socialism

[Note: Previous articles in this series can be found at the following links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.]

As it supplants Revelation [Revolution] acquires the influence of a new Religion of Humanity, kindling in the hearts of its confessors a fanaticism that acknowledges no distinction of means in order to attain its ends.

Groen van Prinsterer, Unbelief and Revolution, 1847

The Christian...imagines the better future of the human species...in the image of heavenly joy...We, on the other hand, will this heaven on earth.

Moses Hess, A Communist Confession of Faith, 1846

Why Is This Happening?[1]

Polling indicates that currently only 18% of Americans are “satisfied” with the way things are going in the US, with 81% believing that our democracy is “threatened.”[2] Politically alert Americans hardly need reminding that our current political division is disturbing, with both major parties threatening that if the other is elected, this could mean the end of our country. Indeed, we seem to be coming apart. The cause of the polarization is far more than policy disagreements over defense or taxation, or mere regional factionalism, which the country has always dealt with. Rather the cause is an ideological crisis. In fact, it is the culmination of a centuries-old religious war.

An impressive number of books, including by Evangelicals, sounds a deafening alarm that variations of “critical theory” or “identity politics” are taking over our republican form of government, the news media, education, corporations, charitable foundations, and even churches—placing our society and even our civilization at risk.[3] Some trace the ideology to the early 20th century, to the Frankfurt School, or limit it to the rise of "identity politics,” denying that it has anything to do with classical Marxism.

What then we are dealing with? While the Church must recognize a dangerous trend, we can't address it adequately unless we understand its origins. This will help us detect it, and also resist it when it has begun to influence the Church itself. We cannot afford to be “...the incompetent physician who fights the symptoms but does not know the cause of the disease.”[4]

The Phenomenon of Socialism

My thesis is as follows: Socialism is less an ideology than a phenomenon.[5] It is akin to a virus that affects a society's thinking such that the state begins attacking or undermining other institutions God has established for human flourishing, especially the church and the family. When atheistic Humanism replaced Christendom in the 18th century, it created the conditions for the emergence of socialism. Just as Christian natural law is the moral theory of Christendom prior to modernity, socialism is the moral theory of modern atheistic Humanism, though after Marx socialism takes on its own quasi-religious character. Because modern socialism is born of another religion, Humanism, it is deeply hostile to Christian natural law; indeed, it seeks to destroy it. Its hostility is analogous to Baal or Moloch worship in the Old Testament, the practice of which continually threatened the worship of Yahweh. And just as ancient Israel had to resist pagan idolatry, the Church must resist the siren's song of the socialist phenomenon.

The incredible dangers of socialism should be well known, but in a kind of collective amnesia, no doubt intended by some, these dangers are often concealed or explained away. As Kundera said, “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” Joshua Muravchic estimates that since 1917, 100 million people have died under socialist regimes, including the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin, China under Mao, and Cambodia under Pol Pot.[6] In addition, secret police; the persecution, torture, and assassination of political opponents; forced labor camps; wiretapping and other forms of surveillance; and religious discrimination are typically constitutive of socialist regimes. The detection of socialist ideology should be met with the same alarm as calls for the reintroduction of chattel slavery or concentration camps for Jews. Tragically, this is not happening.

If a political candidate or party is socialistic, the Church must oppose that candidate or party by uniformly voting against them and pursuing all legitimate political means to defeat them. In our American political context, there are realistically only two parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. As is well-recognized, the Democratic Party has been trending steadily toward socialism at least since the election of Barack Obama in 2008.[7] Despite its manifest flaws, the Republican Party currently offers the only political instrument the Church has at its disposal of resisting our nation's slide into socialist policies and practices.

Socialism: A Very, Very Short Introduction

The Church must recognize that socialism is not only a phenomenon, but also that it is one of the most powerful forces in human history. A popular misconception is that socialism began during the French Revolution. In fact, socialism predates Christianity by several centuries. It has a long history across disparate cultures. Ancient Egypt and the Inca Empire employed elements of collective control that resemble modern versions of socialism. In Assemblywomen, Aristophanes presents a feminist socialist takeover in which private property is banned, children are raised “in common,” and full sexual equality is demanded by law, along with “free love,” the rejection of monogamy. Plato recommends a socialist state in his Republic which institutes collective ownership, and replaces the family with common parenting and state assignments for procreative coupling. Thomas More's Utopia abolishes private property and legalizes euthanasia, though he retains the sexual morality of traditional Christianity. In the era of Christendom, several splinter groups led by Anabaptists sought to create socialist societies, often with horrific results.

 Mere atheism cannot provide atonement to assuage our guilt, nor provide a purpose for human striving beyond death, both of which the human spirit craves insatiably. Atonement and the hope for a perfect world can only be satisfied by a religion. To answer that need, atheistic Humanism of the 18th century itself became a religion. Humanism retains from Christianity a goal of history, a “millennium” of earthly peace and justice which history “bends toward.” To replace the atonement found in Christ’s substitutionary death, it produced a form of atonement through socialism, which included the desire to tear down all existing society and replace it with another.[8]

Innate depravity—now without the controlling influence of Christian natural law, the innate human desire for a perfect society, and the psychic need to be justified combined to produce the conditions for socialism's re-emergence. The hallmarks of modern socialism will be described below, but they include the rejection of the present social order for one of perfect peace and justice, based solely on human equality. Modern socialism goes by many names, including communism, Marxism, the Left, Progressivism, and beginning in the late 20th century, identity politics, and critical race, gender, and queer theory. One might think of a family tree, with the original ancestor being socialism proper, and the various branches being the ways socialism has evolved in the modern West. 

It's not much of a stretch to say that the modern period has been dominated by socialist ideas, especially “equality.” Inequality in whatever form it takes is the socialist definition of “injustice,” rather than natural law's version, which is to give each person his due. On a socialist understanding, “equality” is strict equality of outcome, that is, all have the same thing in fact. One sees this most clearly in policies associated with affirmative action, which the Supreme Court recently ruled unconstitutional in college admissions, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives, in which the mere fact that there are more men or more Whites in a field or position is viewed as ipso facto the result of oppression and discrimination, and so must be corrected through racial, ethnic, or gender-determined set asides.

The most powerful voting bloc opposed to socialism, at least in the US, is indeed the Church. This is because the natural law moral commitments of the Church are opposed to socialist ideology. However, church leaders often succumb to the enormous cultural and financial incentives to concede socialist assumptions.[9]

Defining Socialism: Shafarevich's Analysis

Following the research of Igor Shafarevich, the key components of the socialist phenomenon are surprisingly consistent:

The rejection of the existing social structure, specifically, private property, in favor of a future society in which all are equal, and thus are happy, and true justice reigns.

While the original source of the adage “To make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs” is disputed, socialist activism, itself a form of coveting, is typically willing to suspend common moral precepts such as “Do not lie” or “Do not steal” to achieve what it views as justice. This includes a willingness to condone enormous human suffering and death for the end goal of a perfect society.

 A standard feature of modern socialism is its internationalism. This is a consequence of its millenarian insistence that there will be a day of fully equitable peace and justice for all in this world, requiring of course an elite set of policymakers. This is only possible if national borders are suspended or porous.

Hostility toward traditional forms of religion, especially Christianity

In the US, Christian natural law has gone from being the dominant culture (“positive world”), to being but one of the many options in a pluralistic society (“neutral world”), to being deeply offensive to all sensitive and well-meaning people (“negative world”), the equivalent in the mind of Progressives to the KKK or Nazism.[10] This development follows precisely the pattern described by Groen van Prinsterer. In both modern liberalism and socialist ideology,

The state is atheistic. Within certain limits religion may sometimes be tolerated and protected as useful and indispensable, but the state itself is not subject to its authority. The expression la loi est athée, the law is atheistical, is the slogan of public authority.[11]

However, the “neutral world” of tolerance of religion is typically short-lived. The Christian religion is the source of the morality that preserves the very civic order the overturning of which is the goal of revolution:

Given the connection of religion and morality with politics, the zeal to destroy authority will be accompanied by an eagerness to destroy the faith, and the Revolution will be animated with a spirit from hell as it persecutes religion and virtue.[12]

The abolition of the family, the rejection of chastity, and the promotion of “free love” or non-marital sexuality

The attack on the generative family and monogamous sexuality is ultimately an attack on human nature. Once sexuality is separated from monogamous marriage, the inevitable result is abortion, surrogacy for homosexuals, and the dissolution of the meaning of marriage, which of course is the goal. The attack on marriage began with the loosening of the bonds of marriage through “no-fault divorce,” and was greatly intensified by government welfare going only to single parents. The separation of sex from biology and family led inevitably to the reductio ad absurdum of same-sex marriage and transgender ideology. It should not surprise us that US births have now fallen well under the replacement rate.

It goes almost without saying that removing “oppressive” cultural and moral restrictions on sex is thrilling and liberating to the young as well as to those with non-heterosexual desires, and easily generates a significant political following in a confused society. Political support for abortion rights may have begun as a means to escape the consequences of “free love,” but due to the religious nature of socialism, and an atomistic understanding of the individual who has no natural obligations,[13] it has now taken on the characteristics of cultish obsession.

The absolute insistence on equality

In socialism, all forms of inequality are oppressive, and so inequality in any form must be eliminated from human society, whether economic, sexual, racial, ethnic, but also of birth, such as inherited status. As socialism has developed in the West, the absolute insistence on equality has been expressed through the Oppressor/Oppressed distinction, that is, that one is either an Oppressor or one of the Oppressed. In classical Marxism, the Oppressor is the Bourgeoisie, and the Oppressed is the Proletariat. In recent identity-based versions of socialism, the Oppressor is white, male, heterosexual, or Christian (or all of the above), and the Oppressed is a racial minority, a woman (or transgender person), a non-heterosexual (non-cisgender), or a non-Christian.

Detecting Socialism

As a cultural phenomenon, socialism is not necessarily linked to a theory—socialist convictions can develop in people who have very little exposure to socialist theory proper, often through guilt manipulation, though our educational system is dominated by socialist ideology. The pervasive use of social media contributes to the socialist phenomenon, since social media elevate atomistic individualism, and circumvent the natural boundaries of family and nation.

Some criteria for distinguishing socialist ideology from non-socialist policy are the following:

1) Does the person advocate policies that imply statism, or government control of either the church or the family?

2) Does the person advocate policies that directly violate or undermine the 10 Commandments regarding the taking of life (abortion, euthanasia) or the removal of God from the public square?

3) Does the person suggest that injustice is “systemic” without adequate evidence, for example, without citing legal discrimination based on race? Does he assume that human depravity is the result of the fundamental design of society, and not the human heart? Does he mean by “systemic injustice” the mere presence of inequality, though there are no legal impediments to success?

4) Does the person imply that inequality is inherently unjust, e.g., “It's not fair that some schools don't have computers in the classroom!” or “It's not fair that some health care plans are far more comprehensive!” Is the implication that the remedy for such inequality is government control and redistribution?

5) Does the person suggest that the generative, one-male-and-one-female family is outdated, or that new, more inclusive definitions of “family” or “marriage” are needed?

6) Finally, to attain its millenarian aspirations, equality for all humanity, a major obstacle to a socialist utopia is traditional national borders. Does the person advocate an open-border policy to achieve better income distribution and equality of opportunities among First and Third World countries?

To conclude: Even if Democrats win the White House and both houses of Congress, socialist ideas sound great until they're put into practice. So despite socialist advances, a well-functioning democracy and a morally grounded people can overturn them. We must also acknowledge that no nation is immune from divine judgment, which can take the form of socialist depredations. Nevertheless, we must be vigorously faithful to what God has decreed regardless of our situation, and resist it with every legal means.

Notes

[1] This installment of my series addresses the current situation of the Church regarding the elections in November 2024, and so is to some extent "occasional." Long term, this installment will likely be revised.

[2] https://politics.georgetown.edu/2024/03/21/new-poll-81-of-voters-believe-democracy-is-threatened/.

[3] Representative titles include Joshua Mitchell, American Awakening (Encounter), 2020; Douglas Groothuis, Fire in the Streets (Salem Books), 2022; Christopher F. Rufo, America's Cultural Revolution (HarperCollins), 2023; Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer, Critical Dilemma (Harvest House), 2023; Yascha Mounk, The Identity Trap (Penguin), 2023.

[4] Groen van Prinsterer, Unbelief and Revolution (Lexham, 2018), 178.

[5] I draw here on the work of Igor Shafarevich (d. 2017), the influential Russian mathematician. I consider his The Socialist Phenomenon to be one of the best works available on the history and nature of socialism. Igor Shafarevich, The Socialist Phenomenon (Gideon House Books), 2019.

[6] Joshua Muravchik, Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism (Encounter, 2019), 359.

[7] The current Democratic candidate for Vice President, Tim Walz, has equated socialism with "brotherliness." https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/08/06/gov_tim_walz_on_white_dudes_for_kamala_harris_call_one_persons_socialism_is_another_persons_neighborliness.html

[8] The need for works to atone for one's sins, which is obviated in biblical Christianity through the work of Christ, seems to make a person or institution more open to socialism. This helps explain why former Jews, Catholics, and Protestants, and their non-revelation-based "liberal" versions, are attracted to socialism.

[9] Cf. Megan Basham, Shepherds for Sale (HarperCollins), 2024.

[10] Aaron Renn, Living in the Negative World (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan), 2024.

[11] van Prinsterer, 159.

[12] van Prinsterer, 152.

[13] I refer here to the phenomenon of pro-abortion arguments that treat the woman's child as if it is a total stranger, and make analogies between an unwanted child and a total stranger or an alien from outer space.

— Nicholas K. Meriwether is Professor of Philosophy at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, OH. He has taught the Ethics requirement at SSU for 26 years. He received an MA in Christian Thought from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and a PhD in Philosophy from Purdue University. He has published in the areas of moral psychology, Critical Theory, Islamic militancy, and the role of ethics instruction in higher education. He and his wife, Janet, have three grown children. They are members of the Presbyterian Church in America.

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