Many “socialists” keep their views on religion in the background in the belief that it is irrelevant to their propaganda, yet that socialism implies the rejection of superstition cannot be disputed. Socialism, as the science of society, is an essential part of a scientific view of all phenomena regarded as an interdependent whole; and such a monistic view of the universe, with each part in inseparable causal relation to the rest, can leave no nook or cranny for God. The great theoretic weapon of the workers in their fight for emancipation is science, not religion; and religion and science are as incompatible as oil and water.
The working class although not as yet hostile to religion, are nevertheless becoming increasingly indifferent to it. It is an irrelevency to them except perhaps on a wedding or christening day, a traditional ritual rather than belief. Its rites and ceremonies a legacy from a near forgotten past. No longer does the pomp of religious ceremonies, organ music, the candle light and incense of churches with the garish costumes of officiating priests, strike the imagination and act upon his brain of workers. To maintain what influence it has, the churches are truly all things to all men. They have jettisoned their grosser superstitions in order to save their idealism as a bulwark against materialism. Keep the gaze of the masses fixed upon the sky, the ideal world where they cannot see how they are robbed and oppressed. Every social revolution from the French to the Spanish has had to meet the full fury of the Churches. (According to some historians, it was the influence of Methodism which prevented the French Revolution from spreading to England.) In both its ideology and its property-relationships official religion has only played one role in the class war: that of chaplain, apologist, and, where necessary, active auxiliary to the ruling class.Such is the useful role of all religion to every ruling class. The lack of real democracy on earth is made up by a fictitious democracy in heaven. As far as the class struggle is concerned, official religion is, and always has been, on the side of the exploiters. Indeed, granted its social background, it could not have been anything else. Today, the churches are fully alive to the urgency of social questions, and even to the possibility of social revolution. If the church does not know too much about the next world it undeniably knows quite a lot about this one, having not wasted its 2000 years’ historical experience. Churches as institutions possess very strong survival instincts. The churches permit a certain amount of ‘Leftism’ among even its higher clergy: it goes without saying that this presents no real danger to the existing social order and when it does as in the case of the Latin American liberation theology, it cracks down and disciplines its priests.
And the same is true today although in fairness we do have who are called Christian Socialists and there were such movements as those of the Lollards and Anabaptists which were anti-ruling-class, and in some cases, even ‘communistic’ in their beliefs. They were, undoubtedly, ‘heretical’ and can accurately be called revolutionary, having regard for the circumstances of their time. It is undeniable that such movements existed, that they reflected their contemporary class antagonisms and were, even, to a certain extent, revolutionary in their relation to contemporary states and society. Their ‘communism’ however was looking backwards, not forwards to establishing a new type of society. Moreover, most of these movements were dominated by clerics – for example, John Ball and Thomas Munzer, etc. Had they succeeded they may well have become themselves some sort of theocracies as indeed the religious radicals of the English Revolution imposed with their puritanical state. Voltaire summed it up in his description of the clerical ‘communistic’ state founded by the Jesuits in Paraguay during the eighteenth century: ‘In Paraguay perfect communism existed: the Jesuits shared the wealth; whilst the Indians shared the work!’ It is a far cry from the revolutionary Anabaptists of the sixteenth century to the Baptists of the twentieth.
Too often those Christian Socialists advocate the conciliation of classes, the fraternity of robbers and robbed, not the end of classes. They desire to purge the socialist movement of its materialism, and this means to purge it of its socialism, and to divert from its materialism to the fruitless chasing of spiritual will-o’-the-wisps. Many a Christian Socialist is, indeed, an anti-Socialist. All religions form a united front against socialism, for the revolution digs a common grave for all the gods! No amount of negative propaganda can destroy religion because it is a social phenomenon of present-day society. Only the achievement of a classless society can do that by abolishing its causes. The war against the gods is, henceforth, equivalent to the class war for a socialist society: So forward to the social revolution!
In these times of pending war a song castigating all those army chaplains and padres who sent off the troops with a holy blessing. The double standard of conduct which can abhor private murder but glorify the mass slaughter of "the enemy" is a characteristic fostered by all the churches in every land.
Sky Pilot
He blesses the boys as they stand in line
The smell of gun grease
and the bayonets they shine
He's there to help them all that he can
To make them feel wanted he's a good holy man
Sky pilot,
Sky pilot,
How high can you fly?
You'll never, never, never reach the sky.
He smiles at the young soldiers
Tells them it's all right
He knows of their fear in the forthcoming fight
Soon there'll be blood and many will die
Mothers and fathers back home they will cry
Sky pilot,
Sky pilot,
How high can you fly?
You'll never, never, never reach the sky.
He mumbles a prayer and it ends with a smile
The order is given
They move down the line
But he'll stay behind and he'll meditate
But it won't stop the bleeding or ease the hate
As the young men move out into the battle zone
He feels good, with God you're never alone
He feels tired and he lays on his bed
Hopes the men will find courage
in the words that he said
Sky pilot,
Sky pilot,
How high can you fly?
You'll never, never, never reach the sky.
You're soldiers of God, you must understand
The fate of your country is in your young hands
May God give you strength
Do your job real well
If it all was worth it
Only time it will tell
In the morning they return
With tears in their eyes
The stench of death drifts up to the skies
A soldier so ill looks at the sky pilot
Remembers the words
"Thou shalt not kill."
Sky pilot,
Sky pilot,
How high can you fly?
You'll never, never, never reach the sky.
The Animals
The working class although not as yet hostile to religion, are nevertheless becoming increasingly indifferent to it. It is an irrelevency to them except perhaps on a wedding or christening day, a traditional ritual rather than belief. Its rites and ceremonies a legacy from a near forgotten past. No longer does the pomp of religious ceremonies, organ music, the candle light and incense of churches with the garish costumes of officiating priests, strike the imagination and act upon his brain of workers. To maintain what influence it has, the churches are truly all things to all men. They have jettisoned their grosser superstitions in order to save their idealism as a bulwark against materialism. Keep the gaze of the masses fixed upon the sky, the ideal world where they cannot see how they are robbed and oppressed. Every social revolution from the French to the Spanish has had to meet the full fury of the Churches. (According to some historians, it was the influence of Methodism which prevented the French Revolution from spreading to England.) In both its ideology and its property-relationships official religion has only played one role in the class war: that of chaplain, apologist, and, where necessary, active auxiliary to the ruling class.Such is the useful role of all religion to every ruling class. The lack of real democracy on earth is made up by a fictitious democracy in heaven. As far as the class struggle is concerned, official religion is, and always has been, on the side of the exploiters. Indeed, granted its social background, it could not have been anything else. Today, the churches are fully alive to the urgency of social questions, and even to the possibility of social revolution. If the church does not know too much about the next world it undeniably knows quite a lot about this one, having not wasted its 2000 years’ historical experience. Churches as institutions possess very strong survival instincts. The churches permit a certain amount of ‘Leftism’ among even its higher clergy: it goes without saying that this presents no real danger to the existing social order and when it does as in the case of the Latin American liberation theology, it cracks down and disciplines its priests.
And the same is true today although in fairness we do have who are called Christian Socialists and there were such movements as those of the Lollards and Anabaptists which were anti-ruling-class, and in some cases, even ‘communistic’ in their beliefs. They were, undoubtedly, ‘heretical’ and can accurately be called revolutionary, having regard for the circumstances of their time. It is undeniable that such movements existed, that they reflected their contemporary class antagonisms and were, even, to a certain extent, revolutionary in their relation to contemporary states and society. Their ‘communism’ however was looking backwards, not forwards to establishing a new type of society. Moreover, most of these movements were dominated by clerics – for example, John Ball and Thomas Munzer, etc. Had they succeeded they may well have become themselves some sort of theocracies as indeed the religious radicals of the English Revolution imposed with their puritanical state. Voltaire summed it up in his description of the clerical ‘communistic’ state founded by the Jesuits in Paraguay during the eighteenth century: ‘In Paraguay perfect communism existed: the Jesuits shared the wealth; whilst the Indians shared the work!’ It is a far cry from the revolutionary Anabaptists of the sixteenth century to the Baptists of the twentieth.
Too often those Christian Socialists advocate the conciliation of classes, the fraternity of robbers and robbed, not the end of classes. They desire to purge the socialist movement of its materialism, and this means to purge it of its socialism, and to divert from its materialism to the fruitless chasing of spiritual will-o’-the-wisps. Many a Christian Socialist is, indeed, an anti-Socialist. All religions form a united front against socialism, for the revolution digs a common grave for all the gods! No amount of negative propaganda can destroy religion because it is a social phenomenon of present-day society. Only the achievement of a classless society can do that by abolishing its causes. The war against the gods is, henceforth, equivalent to the class war for a socialist society: So forward to the social revolution!
In these times of pending war a song castigating all those army chaplains and padres who sent off the troops with a holy blessing. The double standard of conduct which can abhor private murder but glorify the mass slaughter of "the enemy" is a characteristic fostered by all the churches in every land.
Sky Pilot
He blesses the boys as they stand in line
The smell of gun grease
and the bayonets they shine
He's there to help them all that he can
To make them feel wanted he's a good holy man
Sky pilot,
Sky pilot,
How high can you fly?
You'll never, never, never reach the sky.
He smiles at the young soldiers
Tells them it's all right
He knows of their fear in the forthcoming fight
Soon there'll be blood and many will die
Mothers and fathers back home they will cry
Sky pilot,
Sky pilot,
How high can you fly?
You'll never, never, never reach the sky.
He mumbles a prayer and it ends with a smile
The order is given
They move down the line
But he'll stay behind and he'll meditate
But it won't stop the bleeding or ease the hate
As the young men move out into the battle zone
He feels good, with God you're never alone
He feels tired and he lays on his bed
Hopes the men will find courage
in the words that he said
Sky pilot,
Sky pilot,
How high can you fly?
You'll never, never, never reach the sky.
You're soldiers of God, you must understand
The fate of your country is in your young hands
May God give you strength
Do your job real well
If it all was worth it
Only time it will tell
In the morning they return
With tears in their eyes
The stench of death drifts up to the skies
A soldier so ill looks at the sky pilot
Remembers the words
"Thou shalt not kill."
Sky pilot,
Sky pilot,
How high can you fly?
You'll never, never, never reach the sky.
The Animals
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