Book Review: Karl Marx, Satan’s own minion?
This is not a good book that I’m reviewing.
In fact it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever read on any subject in the published English corpus.
But first, two disclosures: 1) Owing to the lack of demonstrable evidence that any “God” exists, I lack belief in the existence of any gods, this makes me an atheist; 2) I didn’t read the whole book, I can’t, it begs the same question over and over again and it gets painful fast. I’ve linked in case you’re a masochist or Catholic (although he also goes after the Catholics).
Marx wasn’t a Satanist and neither is anyone else
Richard Wurmbrand argues that communism, renouncement of faith, and active participation in an evil Satanic cult developed simultaneously in the erstwhile God’s Temple of Karl Marx’s heart.
Raised a Christian, according to the book’s jacket, Marx undertook a “deep personal rebellion against God and all Christian values and eventually became a Satan worshiper who regularly participated in occult practices and habit.”
The evidence? It’s low-tech #Pizzagate. Wurmbrand freely inserts poem fragments and short phrases with no context, pointing to how Marx and some of his contemporaries describe Satan in their poetry and personal letters with the exact same phrasing used in religious or historical references, from which everyone concerned no doubt actually learned about them.
The author never addresses any element of Marxism or communism except in the broadest terms, like: “Allegedly, Marx was antireligious because religion obstructs the fulfilment of the Communist ideal, which he considered the only answer to the worlds problems.”
While no communist or student of Marx would ever put it that way in a million years, Wurmbrand writes: “This is how Marxists explain their position, and sadly there are clergymen who explain it in the same way.”
He quotes a Reverend Oestreicher’s sermon, which includes one of many accurate and cogent Marxist objections to the Church and institutional religion.
Communism, whatever its present varied forms of expression, both good and bad, is in origin a movement for the emancipation of man from exploitation by his fellowman. Sociologically, the Church was and largely still is on the side of the world’s exploiters. Karl Marx, whose theories only thinly veil a passion for justice and brotherhood that has its roots in the Hebrew prophets, loathed religion because it was used as an instrument to perpetuate a status quo in which children were slaves and worked to death in order to make others rich here in Britain. It was no cheap jibe a hundred years ago to say that religion was the opium of the masses… As members of the body of Christ we must come in simple penitence knowing that we owe a deep debt to every Communist.
Wurmbrand does not address this objection, but follows the quote with a barrage of fallacious nonsense. That’s the book, the whole thing over and over again. It was not written to make the prodigal free-marketer return to the altar, none of it makes any sense at all:
Marxism makes an impression on people’s thinking because of its success, but success proves nothing. Witch doctors often succeed too. Success confirms error as well as truth. Conversely, failure can be constructive, opening the way to deeper truth. So an analysis of some of Marx’s works should be made without regard to their success.
The fact is that there are no or at least there are very few worshipers of Satan, Church of Satan members not even being among them. The Satan in Wurmbrand’s mind is not ancient, as the author claims in the book, but Victorian at the earliest in its first coinage. The author cites scripture regarding plural “devils” in the Old Testament as evidence for the paleolithic “Devil,” but that word was in fact interchangeable with “gods” in many cases, and in any event, the plural reference means “all other gods besides our god.”
Hide it under a bushel? Fuck that, hail Satan
I think the only thing to do now is to make t-shirts with the book’s cover, or to make just one for me and send it to me.
Why did he this write this book, is he a total nutbar?
Richard Wurmbrand was born in Bucharest in 1909 to a Jewish family and became a Christian at about the age of 30. He was imprisoned and tortured for 16 years by the communist government of Romania for publicly denouncing state involvement in the church.
The first publication of the book — released with the title “Was Karl Marx a Satanist? — came at a time when liberation theology was sweeping Latin America, a dynamo behind many popular resistance movements, some successful until they were subverted with the help of the US government. Wurmbrand targets Nicarauga, sort of, in the book.
Wurmbrand founded the International Christian Association and the Voice of Martyrs. The former’s website is registered to a deceased former member of the Manitoba legislature. It was last registered in May of 2017 under the decedent’s name, 13 years after same died from cancer. It’s a miracle.
Wurmbrand himself died in 2001, so there’s no way to make him pay for his book.
