Christian Democratic Socialism

Friends,

In the past year I discovered, and then came to deeply admire, the legacy of Francis Perkins, the first woman director of the Department of Labor, and thus the first woman cabinet member . Although not publicly nor politically identifying herself as a “socialist” per se, the influence of her work established the classical role of a socialist government committed to protecting and supporting the working class, or, as I prefer to call it, the common good. She used her position as the first director of the Department of Labor as a base to promote more humane, safe  work places and fair wages for workers across the nation while also being one of the primary drivers to pass the legislation that created the New Deal under the Roosevelt administration. Her contribution to American history is that, against considerable opposition, she championed a shift from a government largely focused on business and commerce to a government that included centralized public welfare. 

So the more I have thought about it, I have become clearer that my personal and religious values support a Perkinsonian socialist political frame. So I am now able to confirm willingness to publicly call myself a socialist, but I need to be more explicit by adding that I am a Christian, and that I am firmly committed to democracy, which makes me a Christian Democratic Socialist.. I know that the American culture will continue to have reticence about socialism given the years of propaganda that identified socialism with its opposite, that of a state run oligarchy that exploited the people and forced, self serving planning that benefited the few under extreme repression.

In terms of religious values, the narrative of Jesus’ teaching, and the economic practices of the early Christian church, emphasized a culture of cooperation flowing from an inclusive love ethic. It held that resources were to be shared and the poor were to be cared for. I like to think that my understanding of socialism is a kind of inclusive “love economic” that Jesus so emphatically modeled. It most certainly was not an ethic of achieving personal wealth and economic power.

In the process of developing Christianity over the years the early radical Christian socialist "love ethic" morphed toward centralized control of the wealth and military power in the model of the political structures of Roman Catholicism and other politically aligned European religious hierarchies. And thus Christianity became the major purveyor of what we know as capitalism by supporting the accumulation of personal power, dynasties, and wealth. 

But the radical biblical narrative remained. Jesus and the early church's model of communitarianism (dare I even whisper the word communism?), continued to be there for the taking and inspiration, and there have always been those who attempted to follow the radical teaching of Jesus. Catholic orders formed to live together with shared resources. Other groups, especially under persecution like the Quakers, organized to support each other with food and release from prison while they witnessed against the religious and political power structures. Much of the modern social and rights campaigns have also found a spiritual basis for their organizations and sacrificial effort to support peace and justice.

And so the struggle to establish variations of Christian Democratic Socialism, whether in local communities, or in major metropolitan settings like New York and Seattle, or perhaps by individuals who have the courage to attempt political leadership from a socialist platform. One can argue that some form of Christian Democratic Socialism offers a viable alternative to the exploitive tragedy that capitalism has become.

I encourage us all to examine our personal values. If you are a member of a Christian congregation (or really any religious group that also promotes care of the poor and promotes the common good), challenge your leadership and peers to look seriously at the Christian biblical narrative related to communitarian sharing and the foundational faith and practice of socialism. One way to do that would be to form a book group to read the biography or other literature about Francis Perkins* and the current interest in socialism across the nation.

Peace,
Tom


*Francis Perkins: The Woman Behind the New Deal by Kirsten Downey