Can I join the Communist Party if I'm religious? Isn't Marxism against religion?, by: Marc Brodine, in: cpusa.org

Found at: http://www.cpusa.org/article/articleprint/935/

First published: 04/23/2008

The Communist Party is a political movement for all who oppose capitalism and its oppression and exploitation. We welcome religious people into our ranks. We have priests, ministers and religious activists from many churches as members. We see no contradiction to atheists and religious people joining together in a Party that works for social justice, peace and socialism, no contradiction between religious belief and progressive, even radical, social action.

A Communist Party is both a Marxist organization and a social movement. While we may disagree on the ultimate question of materialism versus idealism, we can unite on all aspects of a program of, by, and for the working people of our country and of the world.

Marxism is not against religion, just against those who use religion and religious organizations for reactionary purposes; we are against the right-wing in the religious community as we are against the right-wing elsewhere in society. We oppose the use of religion for right-wing political purposes in election campaigns and other movements.

The CPUSA stands for freedom of religion and welcomes members from all religions, and supports the progressives in every religion who fight for the poor, for workers, for a humane and just society. We see great commonalities between many religious teachings and beliefs and those of revolutionaries. We appreciate the struggles that take place in religious communities as well as the role that religions play in peace, human rights, and anti-poverty struggles.

Most (though not all) of Marxist philosophy meshes well with progressive trends in many religions. We work with and work for alliances with those progressive trends, and encourage the growing participation in peace coalitions of church councils at the local, regional, and national levels.

Marxism shares with most religions an appreciation of moral justice, peace, equality, commitment to the greater good, and seeing all life as a web of interconnections. Marxist philosophy rejects the idealist reasoning of religion, but arrives at many of the same or similar beliefs from a materialist direction.