Forum Summary: Marxism and A New Kind of War
Author: Ryan Price | Student, Living Education – Charlotte, 2021-22
Estimated Reading Time: 5 min.
For his forum, Mr. Michael Brown warned the LivingEd students of the pervasive communist agenda in our world today and that we should be careful to not get caught up in it.
Mr. Brown examined the Communist Manifesto and looked at what exactly it promotes.
What is Communism?
Communism was an idea conceived by Karl Marx and first put into practice in the Soviet Union in 1917. Now the western world has become the biggest promoter of this ideology. Mr. Armstrong commented on Communism back in 1956, explaining that proponents of this idea have engaged in a new kind of psychological war using propaganda, infiltration, and subversion. They target our minds and our moral and spiritual values. This is not a war against a single nation, but a “plainclothes army” of ordinary-looking citizens who promote Marxist ideas. This army has formed a political party that we would recognize today as the radical left. “Political Correctness”, revisionist history, the villainization of our economic system, “progressive” education, Hollywood, and the breakdown of the family are just some of the ways this party saps our societal strength and perverts our morals. Mr. Brown explained that Communism—or Marxism—is just one of the many ideologies that have threatened the Church in times past. This ideology is one of the reasons certain church programs have been banned from multiple TV stations. These ideas demand that everyone conform to them, or else face punishment.
2 Corinthians 2:11 tells us to not be ignorant of Satan’s devices, so, Mr. Brown read some points from the Communist Manifesto to examine what Marxism is. Karl Marx viewed the course of history as a struggle between the rich and poor. To usher in the perfect world, the poor would have to violently overthrow the rich. This first point suggests that we need to change the world through radical action. This is why we see so much anger and hatred from leftist thinkers in our society. The second point Mr. Brown highlighted was the Marxist idea of doing away with private property.
Mr. Brown explained, as a third point of this ideology, that Marxism opposes the family structure. Marx viewed children as slaves to their parents and desired the abolition of the family. We can see how this idea has already affected the world we live in. Fourthly, Mr. Brown brought out that Marxism seeks to abolish countries and nationalities. Finally, he stressed that it is important to note that Marxism teaches the destruction of all religion, tradition, truth, and morality as a means to create a perfect “utopia”. This is one of the aims of Communism—not to coexist with us, but to get rid of God’s people and His truth.
What can we do?
Mr. Brown told us to be skeptical and to think critically about the things we hear and see in this society. He referred to Proverbs 18:17, explaining how things that may seem right on the surface often show their true colors upon further examination. Even movements that seemingly promote good purposes, such as women’s rights and social justice, upon closer examination we find that these ideologies often are connected to and promote truly terrible things. Using the “Women’s Rights” movement as an example, Mr. Brown explained that one major goal of the movement is to advocate for a government-sanctioned right to murder children through abortion. We therefore must be careful not to accept seemingly innocent ideas without deeper investigation.
Isaiah 59:14 speaks of a time when Truth has fallen in the streets. We could relate this scripture to Marxism today which aims to abolish truth in favor of its false narrative. To counteract this ideology, Mr. Brown stressed that if we spend our time doing the right things and learning from God’s word, we can resist the false narrative the world promotes, and develop skills and gain experience that will help us not only in this life but also in the life to come.
