Socialism by Another Name

By Brannon S. Howse

The “social justice” called for by the Earth Charter is merely socialism or redistribution of wealth. The term has been used by communists for years, and now it is being used by religious leaders. When social justice comes into the Church it is called the social gospel, but make no mistake, the social gospel is nothing more than socialism wrapped in religious terminology and unbiblical theology. 

Dr. Walter Rauschenbusch is called the father of the social gospel. A member of the Fabian Socialist Society, Rauschenbusch taught at Rochester Theological Seminary. His goal was to indoctrinate seminary students in socialism, global governance, the social gospel, and Fabian socialism, and then send them into the churches. Rauschenbusch declared: “The only power that can make socialism succeed, if it is established, is religion. It cannot work in an irreligious country.” Rauschenbusch spoke of Jesus “not as one who would come to save sinners from their sins but as one who had a ‘social passion’ for society.”

With the financial support of the Rockefellers, Rauschenbusch and his Fabian colleague, Rev. Harry F. Ward (also know as the “Red Dean” for his communist beliefs), started the Federal Council of Churches, which later became the National Council of Churches. According to a publication of the Federal Council of Churches, Ward sought to produce “a changed attitude on the part of many church members concerning the purpose and function both of the Church and Christianity.”

But why would they want to change the purpose of the Church? They wanted to move it away from preaching the Gospel to using it as a vehicle for bringing about global governance, social justice, and the ideas that we see communitarian Rick Warren and other social justice/social gospel proponents promoting. Author Edgar Bundy explains in Collectivism in the Churches that:

...we have seen how Dr. Walter Rauschenbusch... and the leaders of the social-action movements in the churches decided to do away with Christian individualism and turn to outright collectivism, using the church as their instrument.... Religion was only a means toward achieving socialism. And, like all other false prophets who have infiltrated religion through the centuries, [Rauschenbusch] used a “front” or disguise. This disguise, as we have seen, was “'The Kingdom of God.” The Kingdom was not pictured as a spiritual society into which men and women had to be born as individuals through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior, but as a collectivist society which would be brought about by... eradication of poverty, redistribution of wealth... and “economic justice.”

Take note of this incredible testimony before the Committee on Un-American Activities of the U.S. House of Representatives in July, 1953. Robert Kunzig, chief counsel for the committee, asked Manning Johnson, a former top member of the Communist Party, a series of questions:

KUNZIG: ...the name Harry Ward has appeared in so many of these various organizations and groups. It seems as if there is almost an interlacing tie-up... through various sects and denominations. Have you any comment to make on this situation?

JOHNSON: Yes, I have. Dr. Harry F. Ward, for many years, has been the chief architect for Communist infiltration and subversion in the religious field.

KUNZIG: ...could you give us a summary of the overall manner in which the Communists have attempted to infiltrate and poison the religious organizations of America wherever possible?

JOHNSON: Once the tactic of infiltrating religious organizations was set by the Kremlin, the actual mechanics of implementing the “new line” was a question of following the... church movement in Russia, where the Communists discovered that the destruction of religion could proceed much faster through infiltration of the church by Communist agents operating within the church itself. ...the infiltration tactic in this country would have to adapt itself to American conditions.... In the earliest stages it was determined that with only small forces available it would be necessary to concentrate Communist agents in the seminaries and divinity schools. The practical conclusion drawn by the Red leaders was that these institutions would make it possible for a small Communist minority to influence the ideology of future clergymen....The idea was to divert the emphasis of clerical thinking from the spiritual to the material.... Instead of emphasis towards the spiritual and matters of the soul, the new and heavy emphasis was to deal with those matters which, in the main, led toward the Communist program of “immediate demands”….

Manning explained that religion was the cover for an overall communist operation:

The plan was to make the seminaries the neck of a funnel through which thousands of potential clergymen would issue forth, carrying with them, in varying degrees, an ideology and slant which would aid in neutralizing the anti-Communist character of the church and also to use the clergy to spearhead important Communist projects.... 

This policy was successful beyond even Communist expectations. The combination of Communist clergymen, clergymen with a pro-Communist ideology, plus thousands of clergymen who were sold the principle of considering Communist causes as progressive... furnished the Soviet apparatus with a machine which was used as a religious cover for the overall Communist operation.

Benjamin Gitlow, a Communist Party USA founder who turned against Communism, wrote and spoke against Communism until his death in 1965. He, too, testified before the committee: 

KUNZIG: What kind of an organization was the Methodist Federation for Social Action, and how did it differ from a Communist-front organization?

GITLOW: The Methodist Federation for Social Action, originally called the Methodist Federation for Social Service, was first organized by a group of Socialist, Marxist clergymen of the Methodist church headed by Dr. Harry F. Ward. Dr. Ward was the organizer, for almost a lifetime its secretary and actual leader. He at all times set its ideological and political pattern. Its objective was to transform the Methodist Church and Christianity into an instrument for the achievement of socialism. It was established in 1907, 12 years before the organization of the Communist Party in the United States in 1919.

As we conclude this chapter, it is crucial to understand that the Scriptures have warned us there would be people just like we’ve examined. Committed Christians must warn the Church of the wolves in sheep’s clothing, just as the Fabian socialists’ window depicted. Jude 3-4 warns:

I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints, for certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turned the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Notice the Word of God warns us to be aware that certain men have crept in “unnoticed.” This is why we must be watchmen on the wall. Christ died for the Church, and we should be willing to defend the Church from these ungodly men.

Second Peter 2:1-2 similarly cautions that “there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways.”

When we call out false teachers, the wolves in sheep’s clothing, when we call out these men who have crept in unnoticed, who have brought in secret, destructive heresies and doctrines, we will be accused of intolerance, of being divisive, creating factions. Many people have told me, “Howse, you’re divisive.” And my response is, “I hope so.” 

I want to be as wise as a serpent and as gentle as a dove, but I hope what I’m saying and writing is divisive because the Word of God is a double-edged sword, dividing between truth and untruth. If we speak biblical truth, it will be divisive to those who contradict the Word of God. True Christians are called to distinguish between what is right and wrong, between truth and untruth. That which is consistent with the Word of God and God’s character and nature is truth, and that which deviates is not truth. We dare not fear being divisive if we hope to win the battle against the one-world Trojan horse.

U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater ran for president in 1964, and you may remember that during his campaign, Ronald Reagan cut his political teeth, giving speeches for Goldwater. Much later, in 1979, Goldwater wrote the book With No Apologies in which he discussed globalists and the Trilateral Commission. Goldwater explained that the Trilateral Commission (and globalists) “represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power—political, monetary, intellectual, and ecclesiastical.”
      

Goldwater had the foresight to warn the Church that globalists were working to co-opt the Church with a religious Trojan horse. We should do no less. 

First Corinthians 11:18-19 explains that divisions over truth are actually necessary: 

For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. 

There must be factions. Otherwise, how are you going to know who’s being faithful to the Word of God? There is a religious Trojan horse inside the camp of Christianity. The question is: Will you embrace the religious Trojan horse, or will you expose it in order to keep people from being taken spiritual prisoners of war?

Copyright 2012 ©Brannon Howse. This content is for Situation Room members and is not to be duplicated in any form or uploaded to other websites without the express written permission of Brannon Howse or his legally authorized representative.