God's Laws vs. Marxism

For more than the first 200 years of its existence, the United States of America operated basically under God’s laws – that is, the Ten Commandments.  Together, they form the basis for what we refer to as the Judeo-Christian ethics or values, and many of them are reflected in our legal system.  Here they are in brief form:

1.  You shall have no other gods before Me.

2.   You shall not make or worship idols.

3.   You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain.

4.   Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

5.   Honor your father and your mother.

6.   You shall not murder.

7.   You shall not commit adultery.

8.   You shall not steal.

9.   You shall not lie.

10. You shall not covet.

The first four are often called “vertical,” because they deal with the relationship between man and God, while the other six are called “horizontal,” because they deal with man’s relationship to his fellow man.

In the last three or four decades, America has seen a gradual erosion of these principles or values, caused in large part (though not entirely) by a rise of Marxism’s acceptance, especially among the Gen Z age group.  So it should be enlightening to see the clash between God’s teachings and Marx’s teachings – especially as practiced by the major communist regimes since the first communist revolution in 1917.  (We use Marxist and communist or socialist interchangeably.)

The first of the Ten Commandments is God’s proclamation that He is the one true God and there is no other.   Communists, on the other hand, say there is no God – they are declared atheists.  In practice, for example, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) requires behavior that treats the state as a god.  In North Korea, it is said that Kim Jong Un believes he is a god.  Also, to join the Party in China, an express requisite is that Party members do not have religious beliefs.  In the Soviet Union, the primary religion (the Orthodox Church) was suppressed, as were Christian churches in satellite countries. 

The second commandment – not making or worshiping idols – is certainly ignored by communists.  For years in the Soviet Union, people were encouraged to view and pay homage to the embalmed remains of Vladimir Lenin.  And in China, the same is true for the remains of Mao.  There may not be worship services as such, but there are occasional “patriotic” ceremonies in China paying homage to Mao’s remains, and that would no doubt be in violation of God’s second commandment.  In Nazi Germany, the swastika pretty much achieved idol status.

The third commandment – not taking the name of the Lord in vain – would have little or no meaning to committed Marxists, since they are atheists.  If they did refer to God or Jesus, it would be as a curse word or to deny His existence.

The fourth commandment – to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy – would again have little meaning to Marxists, except as a break from work.  And they certainly wouldn’t be keeping it holy.  In fact, in the early days of the Soviet Union, weekends were abolished for about 10 years to maximize production, but too many people were dying from overwork, so the weekends off from work were reinstated.  In general, there is no real Sabbath for those who don’t believe.  And that’s becoming true here as well, as we note all the stores open on Sunday. 

The fifth commandment – honor your father and mother – has been actively abused by all communist/socialist governments in history, because all have encouraged children to report to authorities any “subversive” actions or statements by their parents or other relatives.  “Subversive,” of course, means anything critical of, or in opposition to, the government.  This admonition to children has been expressly taught in schools in the Soviet Union, Communist China, North Korea, and Nazi Germany.

Yes, Nazi Germany.  The left tries frantically to paint the Nazis as fascists from the right, but here’s a quote from Hitler, courtesy of historian Mark Lewis (Town Hall, 5/10/26):

“We are socialists.  We are enemies of today’s capitalistic economic system, the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being, according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance.  And we are determined to destroy this system under all conditions.”

True, Hitler persecuted communists, but he persecuted them mainly as rivals for power, and not so much as ideological opposition.  In practice, he was not that much different from Stalin.  Now back to the Ten Commandments.

The sixth commandment – you shall not commit murder – has obviously been violated in the tens of millions by Marxist leaders and their minions – executions and mass starvation in the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Cambodia, Venezuela, and Cuba, for example.  This is all well documented and a tragic part of world history.

Violations of the seventh commandment – you shall not commit adultery – are much more frequent under communism or socialism, because the moral restraints of religion are stripped away.  Adultery is one of man’s age-old sins and has, in most nations, been kept in check over the years by both religious restraints and reverence for family life.  But Marxist ideology embraces personal moral relativism and makes marriage and the family subservient to the state.  It tends to destroy reverence for family life, even turning family members against each other (see the fifth commandment above).  The result is that adultery is taken much less seriously and significantly increases under Marxism.

Violation of the eighth commandment – you shall not steal – is the economic basis for Marxist governments, because they advocate redistribution of Peter’s income to give to Paul.  That’s theft by government.  It kills incentive to innovate and to work hard and makes everyone government-dependent and relatively poor (except for the elite in authority).  But in the end, the bigger theft is deprivation – i.e., the end result is shortages of food and other basics and a generally low, subsistence level of living.  And if, for example, Jesus has been erased from an entire generation through persecution and mis-education, then there’s no hope.

Violation of the ninth commandment – you shall not lie – is one of the foundational pillars of Marxism.  The biggest lie, of course, is that there is no God.  Beyond that, the promises of utopias, workers’ paradises, and the like are lies because those who make such promises know from history that the promises will fail.  It has been shown in so many places and in so many ways that what the liars seek is not your well-being, but power and control.  The strongest antidote to their propaganda is faith in Jesus Christ.  If you have it, you will never fall for those lies.

Finally, violation of the tenth commandment – you shall not covet – is another foundational pillar of Marxism.  The full commandment in some Christian texts is you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, your neighbor’s goods, or your neighbor’s property.  To covet means to desire enviously – and indeed, Marxism/communism/socialism feeds on the politics of envy.  When you hear people from the left denounce “greedy capitalists” or “greedy billionaires” in general, or people like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos in particular, they are saying that their wealth is somehow at your expense.  You have little because they have much.  Only fools believe this, but we apparently have a great many fools living in this country.

Overall, you can see why Marxists of all shades have no use for God or His laws – and why one of the first objectives of Marxists in power is to get rid of God – e.g., by persecuting Christians and Jews.  Don’t let that happen here.

                                    Norbert J. Kuk