Published by I do have in mind neither Etienne Cabet, founder of Icarian movement in the pre-Marxist 19th century France, who is famous for his dictum: “Communism is Christianity… before (the latter) is corrupted by Catholicism”, nor Fr. Thomas Haggerty, a co-founder of Industrial Workers of the World. I make no reference too to either Ernst Bloch, an atheist theologian who declared: “Where Lenin is, there is Jerusalem” and believed that the Bolshevist fulfillment of Communism is part of the age-old fight for God, or the priest who was labeled communist by both the Vatican and the US government – Camilo Restrepo – and a nun who was Vice-Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party USA in 1980 elections, Diane Drufenbrock.
I am actually referring to the First Christians, about whom we read in the Acts 2:42, 44-45: And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles’ doctrine and in fellowship… And all that believed were together, and had all things in common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
About them, in Act 4:32-37 one reads again: And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the Apostles’ fee: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. And … Barnabas, … a Levite, … having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the Apostles’ feet.
At once, my main thesis is going to be shot down by anyone who for one reason or the other object to the use of the terms communism or communists in relation to Christians or to Christianity. For one, the former words are already adequately demonized after the “effective media projection by the democratic countries,” which of course was evidently ideologically biased, about such countries of the former USSR, Cuba, China, Vietnam, and North Korea. Who could ever forget Joseph McCarthy, who personified the anti-communist pursuits of the “democratic nations” led by the US?
Likewise, an objection that the First Christians are actually communists would spring from the atheistic implication of the assertion. While the First Christians were, and all Christians for that matter are, believers in God, one can make a case about the First Christians actual practice of economic beliefs of, say, the Marxists – for example, submission of private property to a higher value of communal living and the primacy of labor over capital.
Thus, to accommodate these nuances, there is a proposal that involves the use of the term communalism, rather than Christian communism.
But what is communism?
If the term communism is stripped of its ideological mists – that of categories of Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Mao, and others – it would then refer to a structure that promotes an egalitarian, classless society. It is an attempt to offer an option to a society that is plagued by capitalism (which is very obviously running counter to the mandates of the Bible). It is a community where no one is in need, because what each one has is shared. It is a community where each one is brother or sister (in Biblical sense) to one another. It is a community where each one matters genuinely.
Such as the one that one reads about in the Acts of the Apostles.
