Is Communism Compatible with Christianity?

Among leftist circles, there are general attitudes against religion. This is obvious, given that communism is generally more popular with academics, professionals, urbanites, and others sorts of people who are already predisposed to secularism. Not only this, but figures such as Marx and Lenin believed that religion was superstitious nonsense.

But is this the way things must be? Is there no room in Communism for Christianity? Is there no room in Christianity for Communism? I think these two systems not only are compatible, but even complementary.

To start, let's get a rough overview of what communism is. I've said it in a different article, so I'll simply reuse that definition. Communism is "A stateless, moneyless, classless society in which all capital is owned communally." Nothing about this is really against Christianity. In fact, many principles of Christianity align well with Communism.

There are many objections to Christianity from communists. They say that Christianity distracts from materialism, urges complacency, and so on. They say Christianity and religion in general is a delusion that inhibits the movement. But this is not true at all. Christianity doesn't tell us to simply accept the world being bad, always submit, and so on. Instead, these concepts often stem from churches and institutional Christianity, which is used as a tool of the wealthy to either enrich themselves or to subdue the people, and as said in a different article, the church's attitudes have changed with the changes in the mode of production.

There are also many objections to communism from Christians. One writing lists their objections as follows:

Personal possessions are a gift from God, and the abolition of property would make commandments against theft meaningless.
Israelite laws protecting the poor were more about fostering community than imposing communal ownership.
The early Christian church, the community of goods, was voluntary and not imposed by the government or central planners.
Christian giving should be voluntary, not coerced.
Communist governments tend to be anti-religion.
When labor is organized on a mass scale, individual laziness is more permissible.
Forced collectivism undermines the personal aspect of Christianity.

These arguments generally seem to say that the Bible does not command communism, but nothing about the Bible prohibiting communism. Communist governments persecuting Christians is a result of them being run by atheists, not inherent communist principles. Labor being organized en-masse encouraging laziness? This is a product of any large economy, whether capitalist or communist, or even feudal. The scriptures in favor of 'private property' are more in favor of personal property, two very different things. The other sections are more oriented towards "giving is voluntary and not state-mandated" which seems more an argument of the Bible commanding individual actions and expressions and not government intervention, but not necessarily against government intervention. But either way, why must the action be personal? Would it be wrong for a Christian to support a system where nobody goes homeless or hungry, solely because they then can't take individual action to help others? It feels ridiculous and even cruel to let people go hungry simply so you can have the personal ability to demonstrate how nice you are.

So again, many of these arguments against one side by the other are more based on misunderstandings of the other. Even if there was no alignment between Christianity and Communism, the two systems would not be incompatible. Christianity is an immaterial system of spiritual connection to God. Communism is a material system of production and social organization. The two systems simply do not overlap. Communism is the next step of historical progression. Christianity is no more against Communism than it is against Capitalism or Feudalism. These are simply natural modes of production.

But is there overlap between Christianity and Communism? In ideals and ideas, sure. Communism and Christianity both encourage giving aid to the needy and poor through different means, support the liberation of oppressed peoples, view people of different classes or physical being as spiritually equal. Not only this, but much of Scripture speaks against the oppression of the poor by the wealthy, or against the general decadence and unearned luxury of the rich. Saint Basil, a church father, once wrote the following:

"Who is the covetous man? One for whom plenty is not enough. Who is the defrauder? One who takes away what belongs to everyone. And are not you covetous, are you not a defrauder, when you keep for private use what you were given for distribution? When some one strips a man of his clothes we call him a thief. And one who might clothe the naked and does not—should not he be given the same name? The bread in your hoard 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. All you might help and do not—to all these you are doing wrong."

Or another scriptural passage, written by James, the brother of Jesus:

"Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you."

And a description of the early Church in Jerusalem, written by the Disciple Luke:

"All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. [...] All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need."

And finally, a passage written by Paul, to the Galatians:

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

While, again, these passages do not support the system of Communism, the material mode of production, it does show that Christianity has ideals that do align with communism. The inherent equality of man regardless of sex or race, the condemnation of exploitation and systems encouraging poverty, and so on.

To summarize, Christianity and Communism do not prohibit or mandate each other. One system is immaterial, one is material. But there is overlap of ideals and core concepts, and the overlap is enough to where Christianity could very well help in holding a communist society together, as well as fostering classless, moneyless ideals in the people.