On Fri, 15 Jan 1999 11:49:49 -0500 Carl Remick <cremick at rlmnet.com>
writes:
>Re Kirk's: "[Marxism] is an 'Abrahamic' religion in any case."
>
>This can be argued either way. The fact that Marxism is rooted in
>materialism would seem to indicate that it is a sharp departure from
>Judaism, Christianity and Islam. On the other hand, there is much
>about
>Marx himself that falls squarely within the Abrahamic prophetic
>tradition. I believe there was an Episcopal bishop who argued that
>line
>of thought during the 1920s and was ex-communicated.
>
>Carl Remick
>
The Episcopal bishop in question was Bishop William Montgomery (1854-1937). He was educated at Kenyon College and ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1884. He was appointed Bishop of Arkansas where he was an outspoken opponent of racism where he published _The Crucial Race Question_. The resulting furor led to his resignation in 1912 and he returned home to Ohio. There he wrote in favor of justice for the American Indians, supported birth control and by the time of WW I became a socialist.
In 1920 he published _Communism and Christianism_ which called for mankind to "Banish the Gods from Skies and Capitalists from the Earth." This book was an instant hit and was translated into over a dozen languages and sold over a million copies. He was a strong supporter of the Bolshevik Revolution and supported the development of a Communist movement in the US. In 1925 he was brought up on heresy charges before the US House of Bishops. At the trial he was defended by Jospeph Sharts who was already noted for being Eugene Debs' attoney. The House of Bishops found him guilty if heresy and he was removed from office. Subsequently he joined the Old Catholic movement, where he was installed as a bishop. After this he often spoke on behalf of the CPUSA, wrote for the Daily Worker, and would give public lectures, wearing clerical garb. He spoke out in favor of both Irish and black revolutionaries. In his will he left his entire estate to the CPUSA.
Bishop Montgomery can be seen as a precursor for both radical theology and liberation theology. As far as the former is concerned, he called upon Christians to abandon supernaturalist conceptions of God, in this he can be seen as having anticipated the 1960s Anglican bishop, John A.T. Robinson who achieved notariety with his book _Honest to God_ as well as Don Cupitt. Bishop Montgomery also clearly anticipated liberation theology with his contention that to be a Christian in the modern world, one ought to be a revolutionary.
Jim Farmelant
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