Why Religious Socialism now?

I first heard about Religious Socialism at the end of 2020, when my friend Fran Quigley wrote in response to the blog post I had written, The Evil of Capitalism. Fran is the director of the Health and Human Rights Clinic at Indiana University McKinney School of Law and a religioussocialism.org editorial team member. He wrote “This post of yours struck me close to home. I too have become fully convinced of the evils of capitalism. Moreover, I have come to the conclusion that my faith dictates that I work to replace it.”

He told me about his involvement with the Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) Religion and Socialism Committee. I was interested in what I learned, but was involved in other things at the time, primarily Mutual Aid.

I’ve had trouble getting Quakers interested in being involved in Mutual Aid. And I haven’t often raised religion when with my Mutual Aid friends, some of whom are Indigenous. The horrors of the institutions of forced assimilation, which some Quakers were involved in, are receiving much needed attention now.

I have also been involved in the Quakers for Abolition Network. So, when I saw the Central Iowa DSA event related to their prison letter writing project, I became involved. Not surprisingly several of my Mutual Aid friends were involved as well. I joined the Democratic Socialists of America.

A few days ago, our prison letter writing group met via Zoom to discuss additional things we could do related to incarceration. I mentioned Fran and the DSA’s Religious Socialism group and suggested that might be a way to get faith communities involved.

I’ve begun reading Fran’s book, Religious Socialism: Faith in Action for a Better World.

I created a WordPress site, Quakers and Religious Socialism.
https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/

And the Facebook group, Quakers and Religious Socialism. https://www.facebook.com/groups/470800671285294

Faith, Abolition, and Socialism

Faith, Abolition, and Socialism w/ Linda Sarsour & Rev. Andrew Wilkes

Join DSA members Linda Sarsour and Rev. Andrew Wilkes for an exciting and informative discussion about the roles of people of faith in the current campaign for abolition of policing as we have known it. This event is hosted by DSA’s Religion and Socialism Working Group.

My introduction to Religious Socialism

I learned about the Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) Religious Socialism Committee from my friend Fran Quigley, director of the Health and Human Rights Clinic at Indiana University McKinney School of Law and a religioussocialism.org editorial team member.

Fran wrote in response to a blog post I had written, The Evil of Capitalism, December 31, 2020.

This post of yours struck me close to home. I too have become fully convinced of the evils of capitalism. Moreover, I have come to the conclusion that my faith dictates that I work to replace it. Turns out I am far from alone, so I’ve been devoting much of my time this past year to the Religion and Socialism Committee of the DSA, www.religioussocialism.org .

And, as part of a book project on religious socialism, I have published several articles profiling activists from different faith and spiritual traditions who feel called to advocate for a socialist society.  (Examples, if you are interested: a Catholic socialist, a Jewish rabbi socialist, a Black Presbyterian minister socialist, a Liberation Theologian Lutheran minister/professor,  Muslim socialists , a Buddhist socialist and a Black Baptist minister socialist.  I also co-wrote with longtime Religion and Socialism activist Maxine Phillips a short, one-stop primer on the argument for Christian socialism: https://mphbooks.com/democratic-socialists/ ) April 22, 2021

Among the things he shared with me is an article he wrote about sometimes negative views about socialism.

I will be interested to know if you get any negative response to your socialism discussion. U.S. Americans of a certain age, especially those of us who can remember the Cold War, often have some knee-jerk resistance to the term. I recently wrote about that a bit in this article profiling a Black Presbyterian woman minister who is a socialist: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/12/angela-cowser-institute-for-christian-socialism

Of course, identifying as a socialist can create some challenges in that organizing. For example, Ray Sells, the retired Methodist minister, is not as excited about her embrace of socialism.

“I don’t see the reason to use that word,” he says. “It just turns off so many people from the start. Why can’t we just advocate for things like affordable housing and good public education without putting on a label with all those negative connotations?”

When Cowser is told about Sells’s objection, she nods in understanding. But her experience is that talking about socialism in faith communities is less problematic than Sells and others expect — especially when the conversation is with younger Americans, who polls show prefer socialism over capitalism on average, and black Americans, who similar polls show are likely to hold favorable views of socialism.

“I actually don’t get much pushback on it,” she says. She points out that church communities with strong tithing and aid cultures and healthy union workplaces are already quite socialist, as are many American institutions like public schools, infrastructure, and public safety.

“Plus, the biblical basis for socialism is just undeniable. Just look at the early books of Acts, where the body of believers responded to poverty — and a very gendered poverty — by organizing money and resources for the benefit of poor people,” she says. “And the Jubilee platform in Deuteronomy lays out the whole program for a sharing economy where no one person can be strong without the community being strong.”

To Rev. Angela Cowser, “the Biblical Basis for Socialism Is Undeniable”
BY FRAN QUIGLEY, Jacobin, 12/25/2020
Rev. Angela Cowser, a cofounder of the Institute for Christian Socialism, argues that a society rooted in the dictates of the Gospel would look radically different from the one we have now. There is a name for what that change should look like: socialism.

DSA Religious Socialism

https://www.religioussocialism.org/about

The DSA Religion and Socialism Commission is pleased to announce the re-launch of its publication Religious Socialism.

If you’ve wondered what religion and socialism have to do with each other, we hope this site will be useful to you. It is dedicated to people of faith and socialism. As our community grows, we will use it to connect DSA members and to reach out to the larger group of faith-based social justice activists and thinkers.

HISTORY

The original Religious Socialism was founded by John Cort, a long time Christian Socialist writer and activist as well as co-chair of the Religion and Socialism Commission of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). The publication was originally structured as a printed newsletter in 1977 and was in circulation for more than thirty years.

SUBMISSIONS

The new RS is a work in progress. We invite you to join us in making it useful both to people of faith within DSA and to the wider religious left. Be sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and contribute by sending short essays, commentary and articles of interest to via email: religioussocialismdsausa(a)gmail.com