I am not particularly active as a Catholic, but I do think religion holds a close spot in my heart as well as (obviously) the lives of many millions of people.
Occasionally I see my fellow comrades posting their disdain for organized religion or for Christianity in general. While this bothers me, I recognize that many, MANY people have had incredibly traumatic experiences with religion and rightfully have few positives to say about it.
My questions are as such:
How can we be better comrades to our secular sibling-in-arms?
How would you (or we) reform religion and religious institutions if socialism were achieved worldwide?
How safe do you feel as a Christian in this space?
Do you identify as a Christian socialist? Why or why not? Is there an added responsibility or aspect to being a Christian socialist over being a secular socialist?
What do you do to (or want to do) represent the Christian faith in a better, Marxist-based light?
Last one, for funny; how would you make a Red Papacy lmao
Yeah I agree with pretty much everything you just said; obviously being a good comrade isn't tied to being a good member of your faith. It just means being a good comrade in general.
On the topic of the label of Christian Socialist being oxymoronic, I had never really thought about it that way, but you're sorta right. A lot of Marxists (Christian or not) do this thing where they view religion purely as a tool rather than as a larger part of life and another part of human culture. It is true that religions can be a tool, but I think boiling down the thousands of years of theology, philosophy, cultural contributions of Christianity into just "its communist" is incredibly reductive, and it doesn't always make me feel great about how fellow Marxists will treat religious people in general. I had a friend once who more or less touted this line and then said "Once all material needs are met religion will fade away." From a purely materialist point of view, it makes sense, but if anyone's studied any religion and their history at any point in time, they should know that religion is almost never about meeting material needs, it is always about going something beyond that.
Christians who happen to be socialists is probably a better label for some people than Christian socialists, I suppose, in this light. Often someone's Christianity (or religiosity) is not necessarily a factor in someone becoming a socialist. When it is, it is either by an analysis of their faith and their Marxism or because becoming a Marxist reinforced their faith. Although, of course, rarely has someone who is socialist decided to become a Christian because of their socialism, ironically.