By Harsh Thakor
The real Jesus
Christ and what is professed today by the Church or Christianity at large today
is like Chalk and Cheese. Today we celebrate Christmas, but we forget to give
the day true respect. The Christian community immortalizes Jesus Christ for
performing miracles like turning wine into water or resurrecting from the grave.
Historically after the collapse of the
Today whatever
the great teachings of Christianity in essence the Church is blessed or blesses
capitalism. It supports the worldwide trend of Islamaphobia and endorses many
imperialist projects. It also is in an organised way launching a vendetta
against all scientific thought like
However we must
not confuse the teachings and life of Jesus with the practices of later
Christianity or the church. Without doubt he was crusader for the liberation of
humanity or even a revolutionary in his own right. Who can forget how he
confronted the Jewish moneylenders by destroying the very temple and openly
condemned their exploitation of the common man? Historically very few have
dealt such a striking blow in the very belly of the oppressors as Jesus. He had
powerfully idealistic overtones when preaching 'Love thy enemy' but also had
Communistic shades when advocating 'Love thy neigbour' which imbibes teaching
of serving the people. He galvanised poor masses in the manner of a
revolutionary .This very feature inspired advocates of liberation Theology. In
recent times many church priests have supported the revolution in
Historians need
to delve into the root causes of how team of crusaders for liberation turned
into a ruthless oligarchic or oppressive bureaucracy.
Of course we have
to respect views like those of Bertrand Russell who in a most subtle manner
launched a tirade against the hypocrisy of Christianity. However he praised
Christ as a monumental figure as a crusader for serving humanity. Ironically
however much they condemned organised religion and even Marx and Engels foresaw
some revolutionary or humanistic leanings of Jesus. On the other hand today we
have scientific atheists today like Richard Dawkins who oppose social
revolution. Today I would visualize the same Jesus at the very root confronting
Operation Green Hunt in
Today we have to
strike a balance with supporting the progressive elements in Christianity and
the Church and attacking the unscientific aspects of religion .We can reproduce
the writings of Darwin, Bertrand Russell or Steve Hawkins in golden letters but
need not blindly attack Christianity. Instead we should glorify the positive
aspect of the Christian struggle for liberation against
Jesus being
crucified on the cross, symbolizes a crusader laying his life to liberate
humanity from tyranny and even his teaching 'forgive them for they do not know
what they are doing' is an expression of his mission to change the very soul of
man. Of course there are ambiguous positions like 'turning your cheek ' to your
neighbour or enemy which compromise revolutionary spirit. A positive aspect of
Christ was his experience in revolutionizing the 'inner self.' Without a
spiritual change a true revolution cannot be launched. The ‘Sermon on the
Mount’ is an ideal example when he tapped the soul at the very core. I have no
doubt that today Jesus would have been a major crusader against imperialism and
capitalism. In a subtle manner it was revolutionary Che Guevara who emulated
many attributes if Jesus.
Today we have to resurrect
spirit of Jesus in accordance with the neo-global imperialist fascist offensive
striking the world and explore those elements in Christianity that re-coherent
with creating a genuine liberated society. It is pertinent that many great
Marxist revolutionaries were originally Christian liberation theologians. Thus
it is not the physical Jesus resurrecting but his spirit blazing to
liberate humanity.
Quoting Chairman
Joma Sison of National Democratic Front of Philippines "I agree with the
proposition that the tradition of Jesus Christ as social revolutionary is in
dire need of resurrection against the Christian Right. There are certain acts
and words of Jesus that side with the poor and powerless and that there are
those that side with those in authority and condone the wealthy. But communists
can have for allies Christians who are inspired by Jesus as a social
revolutionary. Thus, the Christians for National Liberation (an association of
Catholics and Protestants) is a major ally of the CPP within the National
Democratic Front of the
Quoting comrade
Mercedes Sanchez "If Jesus really existed, he was undoubtedly a social
reference for questioning the society of that time. Today, he would probably be
in
"Remember
that Catholic celibacy was not established until the 12th century and it was
out of lust as a pope upon being rejected decided that if he could not have sex
with whom he desired, no one would. It was then, when the internal struggles
for power increased and there were three popes at the same time fighting for
power and control of the rich Catholic Church. That struggle lasted about forty
years if I remember correctly. Since then and until the 20th century, things
have not changed much. There have been schisms in Christianity creating
divisions. Catholicism is the most traditional and conservative school. Its
norms are brutal for today's society but fortunately for the Church and the
Catholic believers, in the 20th century there were those who, getting up the
courage, decided that this had to change and started a new current called
"liberation theology" whose members were rusticated by the Vatican
but never stopped practicing as priests even though they had partners, children
and social struggles (Stan could very well be one of them). They participated
in the social revolutions in Cuba, Honduras, El Salvador, Brazil,
Nicaragua....people like Camilo Torres,(Ignacio) Ellacuría, Hélder Câmara, Claudio Cardenal... and many others.""
Quoting blog
Necessity and Freedom in article 'Re-Proletarianisation of Jesus'
"It was this
Jesus, so admired, by Eugene Debs and the author Bouck White, who penned the
first radical interpretation of Jesus in his Call of the Carpenter that
must be resuscitated. Both Debs and White considered the message of Jesus,
which had cultivated a small but devoted following as striking fear into the
hearts of the religious and political powers of Jesus’ day. According to Debs,
this was the reason for Jesus’ execution."
He denounced the profiteers, and it was
for this that they nailed his quivering body to the cross and spiked it to the
gates of
“He denounced the profiteers, and it was
for this that they nailed his quivering body to the cross and spiked it to the
gates of
"Historically
we know that this interpretation is correct, due to the fact that crucifixion
was a punishment for a political crime against the State, not
religious heresy. Jesus was executed because he was leading a nascent peasant
and artisan based revolution in a region of the Roman Empire that was under
less stringent controls due to its lack of proximity to
"But what
does this mean in our contemporary setting? Because religion is still with us,
especially now that Christianity serves as a part of the dominant ideological
state apparatus used to oppress the masses, we must soberly grapple with our
own interpretations of Jesus. For communists I find this question to be
negligibly important. However, I do believe it is important for us to challenge
the prevailing narrative, so often used to justify the existing economic and
political order, on its own terms, but with a revived counter-narrative based
in a biblical tradition that is just as revolutionary as it is spiritual. Even
in our own secular political tradition, which correctly eschews religious
dogma, many revolutionaries whom we admire were at least formally like Jesus.
Both Lenin and Mao operated on the peripheries of empire, and based themselves
amongst the poor and downtrodden, just as Jesus did."
"Unlike
today’s Christians, many of which often uphold the “justness” of our own
society, the communists are the ones who advocate for the end of the
exploitation of labor, for the radical transformation of social relations, and
for a mass emancipatory movement to smash the old society and build a new one,
as Jesus himself did. The radical Jesus, whether we believe in the supernatural
elements of Christianity or not, is an integral part of our own revolutionary
tradition, one that is in dire need of resurrection."
EXAMPLES OF JESUS
AS A CRUSADER AGAINST ENEMIES
And what did
Jesus have to say about the exploitation of Labor, was he on the side of capital
and absentee landlordism as the modern purveyors of right-wing Christianity
would have us believe?
Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for
your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your
garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them
shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye
have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the
labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud,
crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of
the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye
have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and
killed the just; and he doth not resist you. – James 5:1-6, KJV
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