Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 00:59:15 -0700
From: cwellen <cwellen-AT-pen.k12.va.us>
Subject: Marxism and Religion:  the reality is more complex in the international arena.


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Comradely Greetings from Wei En Lin


I must agree completely with Louis Godena when he says:


<<Appeals to ecclesiastical authority 
have always been a mainstay of conservative and
counter-revolutionary thought.>>

This seems to have been a particularly difficult problem in Western
history.  But I would like to point out that the relation between
religion and revolution is more complex than Louis Godena's analysis
suggests.

I notice he makes no comment on the fact that the most significant
revolutionary upheaval in China's history (prior to 1911) was intimately
associated with an unorthodox form of Christianity propounded by Hong.

It may seem paradoxical to Western Thinking, but often in Chinese history
it was Confucius' hierarchical humanism which was associated with 
reaction and defense of existing class relations; while the revolutionary
movements have usually been based on some 'religious' idea, such
as Taoism.  Mao points this out in his discussion of the various peasant 
revoutions that have occurred in China.  


So I cannot lend my unqualified consent to the assertion that    

<<Religious beliefs--and those who peddle 
them--must be seen,  simply,  in the
tradition of idealistic and reactionary 
phenomenon that can never be
rendered compatible with the "progressive" 
evolution of the working class
and history.    It must always,  at 
the end of the day,  be inextricably
"tied to traditional feudal or 
capitalist power structures.">>

Both ancient and modern history tell us a different story.
In modern history, the roles which Liberation Theology and certain
schools of Islam play is clearly compatible with progress.  In Sri
Lanka,  Sarvodaya , a radical Buddhist grass-roots movement, is having
great success in mobilizing the Singhalese masses in the villages, after
the failure of the Maoist insurrection of two decades ago. 

Lenin himself argued that certain forms of "idealistic" thinking
were more progressive than narrow materialistic forms of thought.
For instance, he thought Hegel's comprehensive idealistic dialectic
as expressed in the "Phenomenology" was superior to the one-dimensional
materialism of Mach.

Clearly Stalin's form of materialism was as counter-revolutionary as
the worst form of ecclesiaticism.  There is no logic in the formula
Religion = Reaction or in its corolary Materialism = Liberation.

Sometimes I think that the alleged right-wing nature of ALL religious
thinking is a purely Western phenomena.  Perhaps it is more true in
the West, where religious warfare has been more common.
But I notice there are several politically progressive religious groupings
in the West.  I also observe that the "Christian Right"  seems to have an 
inordinate amount of power when compared to the "Christian Left."  It seems
to me a shame that in the West's progressive forces often alienate the 
religiously minded when there is no need to do so.  I think this explains
part of the failure of the West to produce a revolutionary that can succeed.

Another point.  I have trouble understanding the attitude of Louis Godena's 
toward "faith."
He says:

<<Faith is belief in the absence of
evidence.    Humankind's development 
has itself destroyed any rational basis
on which to continue to postulate the 
existence of a supernatural entity.>>

It seems true to me that a human being must always BELIEVE more than he
can KNOW.  For instance, we cannot KNOW that "ultimately 
the exploitation of man by man will end" (at least not in the same
way we know "water is wet").  One must have faith in the revolution;
one must have faith in the triumph of Reason over irrationality; one must 
have faith in mankind (because it is possible man may destroy himself).  
This faith is not very different from
religious faith (or is it?)  In any case, 'socialist faith' 
is not so different from religious faith as to render the materialist 
believer in progress intellectually superior to the religious believer.


My sincere respects,

Wei En Lin. 

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