You write:
> On balance it would seem that Christian theology is
> more inclined against capital punishment than for,
The rhyme goes like this: When Christians torture, rape, rob, massacre, engage in cannibalism, pillage and in general act like the enemies of the human species that they are, it doesn't count, is an aberration, because *real* Christian belief doesn't approve. But when a marxist or someone who calls him/herself a marxist so much as demeans one other person by sneering a superstition (let alone worse crimes and errors), that is a true and deep expression of the very essence of marxism.
As a marxist, however, I have always argued against the habit of moralizing marxists of separating theory and practice in this way, arguing always that *we are our history* (hence my dislike of knee-jerk anti-stalinism, knee-jerk anti trotskyism, knee-jerk *mea-culpas* on the left).
Christianity and "The West" are merely different words for the same thing, regardless of how many individual christians attempt to separate themselves from this history. Christianity is the rationalization of all the horrors of European feudalism and of the entire history of capitalism. (This does not of course at all preclude practical coalition with christian indviduals and christian groups.) Put another way, in the 20th century "the free world" and "christianity" are synonyms, and since "free world" has always been used to mean "non-communist," Hitler's Germany is an expression of "the free world" and thus of christianity.
Incorporating as many Christian individuals and groups as possible into the Resistance to Capital is important in two ways: (1) struggles cannot be waged without the participation of millions of believing Christian indivdiuals; (2) working with Christians politically offers the best context for moving them away from Christianity. Was it Diderot who said that humanity will never find peace until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest? It remains roughly true.
Carrol