COVID-19 Thoughts Part 82: Kengor's new book looks at Marx, his affection of the Devil, and it's impact and consequences upon the world

If you think Heavy Metal/Hard Rock music is something created from pit of hell, perhaps your right.  Many artists especially today used it to explore the themes of anger, rage, and yes, the devil; but don’t just blame Metal and its fans for the destruction of America.  The biggest contributor to the demise of America if not the whole planet is one of the biggest heroes among the progressives, both in the elite and among the plebs is none other than Karl Marx.

Ronald Reagan asked the question; “How do you tell a Communist?”  His answer was someone who reads Karl Marx (and Vladimir Lenin).  Reagan follow up with another question; “How do you tell an anti-Communist?”  Answer said Reagan, it is someone who understands Marx (and Lenin).  I put Lenin in parentheses only because while he played a role, he is not the central figure and specter of Paul Kengor’s latest book The Devil and Karl Marx.  Yes, Lenin is mentioned several times in the book, but also several others who have followed in Marx’s footsteps.  While other people who have read and/or maybe have researched into Marx claimed that he was an actual Satanist and/or into Statism; Kengor does not go that far.  However, Kengor does show that Marx had a soft spot for the devil if not an affection for him and/or sympathy for the fallen angel (long before Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote their groovy song about him).  

The second, third, and fourth chapters condense the life of Karl Marx and by all means it’s anything but happy.  His writings were quite dark.  In his poem The Pale Maiden, Marx declares;

Thus Heaven I’ve forfeited, I know it full well.  My soul, once true to God, is chosen for Hell.  

Another poem written by Marx called The Player is about a violinist who uses his bow as if it was a sword drenched with blood.

Look now, my blood-dark sword shall stab unerringly with thy soul.  God neither knows not honors art.  The hellish vapors rise and fill the brain…I must play darkly, I must play lightly, Until my heart and my violin burst.

Admirers of Karl Marx like to point out his quote that "Religion is the Opium for the Masses."  The quotes that Annie Laurie Gaylor of Freedom From Religion Foundation prefers are as follows;

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the feelings of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of unspiritual conditions. It is the opium of the people.

The first requisite of the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.

Sadly, as Kengor points out in his book, Marx was anything but happy.  He was full of heartless rage, and actually promoted self-destruction while at the same time, attempting to create the perfect society and/or perfect happiness.  Marx also never held a real job and was a sloth.  While I don’t hold such as job right now, I can say that I held a few.  The longest was my grunt work, which was never really rewarded…and I share the blame in my downfall.  But that’s another story.

The book goes beyond Marx beginning with the well-known Bolshevik War on Faith/Religion (done in the name of usher in happiness for the people), and how churches in Russian especially the Russian Orthodox Church tried to push back as the Bolsheviks were carrying out Marx’s (dare I say) demonic agenda to abolish faith in favor of a secular humanist faith…as they destroyed church buildings or converted them into a communist club or commune.

The biggest section of Kengor’s book is how the Communists were able to infiltrate Christian Churches and manipulate its congregants to support Communist/Marxist causes, believing they were doing the Lord’s work but eventually get the congregants to renounce God altogether as Marx envisioned.  Kengor, while an expert on Catholicism does also point out how the Communists worked on mainline Protestant Churches, although he focuses more on Catholic Church being seduced by Marx’s evil specter.  One Protestant pastor exposed by Kengor in the book is Harry Ward, who was ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church (which merged into the Methodist Church and eventually the United Methodist Church) and a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) with atheist Roger Baldwin. 

Both Ward and Baldwin were smitten by the Soviet Union.  Kengor also presents transcripts of U.S. House Committee hearings on how Methodist missionaries influenced by Ward’s teachings actually helped to get Mao Zedong to power and usher in Communist China which is still with us today.  Those very same missionaries FYI, were ran out of China as soon as Mao became Chairman of China.

Kengor then points out the few misfits and radicals that have influenced the modern Marxist of today.  Among those are New York Times “Man in Moscow” Walter Duranty, Harry Hay, Wilhelm Reich and Walter Benjamin both cut and modeled out of the Frankfurt School, feminist Kate Millett whose radicalism was so toxic to her sister Mallory that she could not honor their mother’s dying wish to look after each other, and Mr. "Rules for Radicals" himself Saul Alinksy.

Socialism has become more popular than ever, and people may not understand who Karl Marx really was and how his worldview damned any community touched by it.  Paul Kengor has done a good job in showing the soul of Karl Marx and the pain caused by Marxism in The Devil and Karl Marx, and shows how Marxism and to a lesser degree Satanism is focused on the encouragement of man’s greed and desire to destroy people and communities. 

Many Marxists (though not all) happen to sympathize with Lucifer’s lament.  Marx was one of them, Hands Down.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. -John 10:10 (ESV)  

Please check me out on Parler (@dnmsworld).

The Devil and Karl Marx Book Cover by Caroline Green and Alevtina_Vyacheslav/Shutterstick is licensed under Catholic World Report N/A