Cultural Marxism
Karl Marx (1875), Author John Jabez Edwin Mayal, Source International Institute of Social History, Netherlands (PD)
The following post, in large part, excerpted from “A Primer on Cultural Marxism” by P. Andrew Sandlin, PhD [1].
Sandlin – who is a graduate of Edinburg Theological Seminary – explores the enormous impact Marxism has had on Western society. Sandlin ties post-modern attitudes toward relativism (the doctrine that all truth is relative); identity politics; gender identity; radical feminism; and more, to what he calls “cultural” Marxism.
Materialism
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6: 33).
Sandlin first explains that Marxists are, above all else, materialists.
“[Marxists are materialists who believe] …[t]here is only the physical, not the metaphysical…There is no God…There is no Satan…Man himself is just a highly evolved collection of chemicals, a lump of blood and bone. There is no human soul or spirit…[M]an is no qualitatively different from a rock or tree…Everything in the final reductive analysis is material.
Since man and everything else is material, the fundamental issues of life are material. For man, this means food, clothing, shelter, health, transportation, and so forth…For Marxists…there is no kingdom of God; we must seek material provision above all things…”
Conflict
Sandlin then points out that Marxists deliberately generate conflict. They see conflict as essential to change.
“By dialectics, Marxists refer to the conflict within everything in the universe…
…Marxists relish conflict in a society…They are constantly rooting out ‘counter-revolutionary’ ideas and people. Why? Because without conflict, you cannot achieve material progress [in the Marxist worldview]…
Marxist dialectics is Darwinian evolution applied to human society...”
A Warped View of Freedom
Sandlin describes the Marxist attitude toward freedom as a warped view which idolizes mankind. This is subtly Satanic.
“…[W]hen we combine dialectics with materialism…[we get the] Marxist law of history – man is constantly on the march for greater and greater freedom from constraining material conditions…
Apparently, the final society will be socialism, because it will create the perfect equality of material conditions. Everyone will have every material need met…”
Gnosticism, Self-Alienation, and the So Called “Good Life”
Sandlin next examines how Marxism was adapted, in order to be more palatable to Westerners. The concept of self-alienation is a Marxist construct.
“…Cultural Marxism…was custom designed to appeal to and succeed in Western societies.
…[T]he newer Marxists doubted that the working class would rise up in violent revolution as they did in Russia in 1917. Western workers were mostly satisfied with life most of the time. To win in the West, you needed a Marxism…that took into account Western ways of thinking…They would reinvent the meaning of liberty, freedom, and equality to seduce Westerners and gradually capture the culture…
[Marxism was redefined as a philosophy of human liberation.] For Cultural Marxists, humanity’s main problem is not economic. It is that society’s ideas and institutions prevent us from fulfilling the Good Life. What is the Good Life?…It is being able to be exactly what we want to be, to live exactly as we want to live…
Unfortunately, social forces conspire to restrict our limitless autonomy…In the traditional order, husbands lead families, parents direct children, pastors disciple church members, employers make demands of employees…These institutions crimp our autonomy; therefore, we live artificial, unreal, and unhappy lives to conform to these cultural institutions and their oppressive expectations. We are alienated from our ‘true selves’ [so Cultural Marxism teaches]…
Over time, this human liberation sees even nature itself as an oppressor. Like the Gnostics of old, creation is evil and a barrier to the Good Life. Male or female body parts are oppressive. ‘Sex-reassignment surgery’ must become ‘gender-affirmation surgery’…”
Identity Politics and Class Warfare
The Marxist method of operation is to divide and conquer. As Sandlin explains, Marxists turn one group against another.
“How do Cultural Marxists instigate this crusade for human liberation? …Mainly by dividing people into different classes and instigating conflict, claiming that oppressed classes must fight for equality. This was once called ‘class consciousness’… By equality [however] Cultural Marxists do not mean equality of condition – that is, they don’t mean everybody must play by the same rules. Rather, they believe in equality of results – the rules must be bent to make everybody achieve the same outcomes…
Today class consciousness has morphed into ‘identity politics.’ Under Cultural Marxism, the conflicting classes have been expanded…to include men versus women, whites and Asians versus blacks and/or Hispanics, children versus parents, millennials versus the middle aged, wealthy versus poor…and other binary categories. Cultural Marxists portray one pole of the binary…as oppressed. Then they demand that the state liberate these groups from their oppressors. Oppression here almost never means literal enslavement, abuse, or assault. Rather, it means disrespect, disapproval, or social inequality…”
Authority Subverted
While nominally espousing “freedom”, Marxists actually seek to gain power.
“Cultural Marxists…want state power so that they can destroy traditional authority – especially Christianity – which justifies and produces that authority…”
Secularism
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
-Animal Farm, George Orwell
According to Sandlin, cultural Marxism requires the replacement of Christianity with an unforgiving secularism as the mandatory norm. This involves the transformation of art, music, education, science, and literature – something we are already experiencing.
“For Cultural Marxists, you overthrow the unjust order by capturing culture and its institutions…
The fundamental cultural change that is needed, according to Cultural Marxists, is the leveling of hierarchies. Everything and everyone must be equal…But Cultural Marxism is not interested in merely redressing specific historic evils, as we should, but in re-engineering society…
Those who were formerly privileged must be de-privileged. The upper crust must feel the pain of the marginalization and misery of the formerly oppressed. The oppressed must rule over their oppressors…”
The End Times
“…in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves…proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving…without self-control, brutal, despisers of good…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…” (2 Tim. 3: 1-5).
Christians were warned, 2000 years ago, that developments such as these would come to pass. But we have truth and love, with which to oppose them.
Ultimately, Truth in the Person of Jesus Christ will triumph.
—
[1] Journal of Christian Legal Thought, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2018), pp. 10-16, “A Primer on Cultural Marxism” by P. Andrew Sandlin, PhD.
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A Lawyer's Prayers 
Great post Anna.
I wonder if they teach cultural Marxism in school.. it seems the new generation really follows their ideas..
Whether or not cultural Marxism is taught as a course, I do not know. I suspect its influence goes largely unrecognized. Clearly, however, the “infection” has spread through our school system.
Reblogged this on Anchor Thy Soul and commented:
Cultural Marxism: Anna Waldherr at A Lawyers Prayers
Wow… the more I learn about Marxism the more I realize what a machine of madness they are.
Just reading this post enlightened me to countless tiny details by which they’ve been sneakily weaving their warped agenda into the basic fabric of society, over the years…
Truly sad to see so many falling for their ideological idiocy! 🤔🙃🙏💜 Jackie@KWH
I could not agree more, Jackie. For many years, I had relatives living behind the Iron Curtain. It never occurred to me that the foul dogma on which that repression was based would make its way to these shores.
Yup… and I never thought any of my sweet nieces/nephews would grow up to believe its kook-aid 😥 Heartbreaking, but I’m praying for them! 😇💜 Jackie@KWH
🙂
In today’s culture we seem to have a mixture of “1984,” “Animal Farm” and “Atlas Shrugged.” Ayn Rand (its author) grew up under the oppression of Russian Communism and wrote novels that warned of the same system taking over the west. Cultural Marxists have taken over the media, the educational system and even many seminaries. It is not taught to your kids outright, but they are being indoctrinated to think like socialists. It is no coincidence that the whole slate of candidates on the Democratic ticket for President are socialists as well as many “moderate” Republicans.
The hour is late and the places where we can freely live out our Christian faith are rapidly shrinking. This was a great article, Anna. Thanks for sharing it.
Michael
I personally find the divide and conquer doctrine detailed to be the most disturbing.
It is one thing to be an advocate of faulty ideas. It is another to attempt to proliferate them with force.
I was born in Communist Romania (in 1954). Like most of my contemporaries I was a convinced atheist. We were thought in school that there is no God, no devil, no heaven or hell. We were also told that there is nothing like the ‘spirit world’. We are to work very hard and leave something to our children. That was life as it was explained to us. I believed it! I met Richmond, who is now my husband (and who is a Nigerian) in the medical school. We were class mates. We got married husband and came to Nigeria with him in 1980. We both worked as doctors here between 1980 and 2000. When I came here, I was surprised how religious the Nigerians were (Christian, Muslim and Pagan). I saw their religion as an effect of illiteracy and poverty. I ignored, resisted and rejected the religion of my patients. But against all odds, the Holy Spirit arrested me, convicted me of sins, especially of pride, unbelief and self righteousness. I became saved in 1986. The old me died on that Cross where my Savior shed His Blood for me. Since then, my new life is a testimony to the grace and the power of the only Living God! My husband and I are in full time ministry now! This is the truth: no religion, no doctrine, no teaching, no philosophy or social theory can stand against the name of Jesus Christ! To God be all the glory! God bless you Anna for your faithfulness to God!
Thank you for sharing your inspiring story.
Thank God for grace!
Great and logical criticism over Marxism. But truly speaking I couldn’t find any logic on what’s wrong to have a society with lower income disparity. I think no religion advocate economic disparity. Religion talk about justice, what is meaning of Justice when there is no economic equality.
I entirely agree that no religion advocates economic disparity. Nor do I maintain that we should settle for such disparity. Unfortunately, no system I know guarantees economic equality.
Socialism promises that, but does not actually deliver and has often been associated with human rights violations.
Capitalism — at least in theory — fosters a level playing field and rewards merit. But capitalism, too, has its flaws. In the US, the so called “robber barons” of the 19th Century engaged in monopoly and political corruption. Social Darwinism https://alawyersprayers.com/2017/07/30/undeserving/ was used to justify racism and a harsh attitude toward the poor. Entitlement programs like Social Security https://www.investopedia.com/articles/retirement/122916/are-social-security-benefits-form-socialism.asp and Medicare have since been used to soften the impact of capitalism. Not even they, however, are perfect.
We live in a badly flawed world. Hanging Pakistan’s aristocrats is not an answer. One way or another, others will take their place.
Hanging, just implies aggression. I mean aristocrats should be prosecuted, at least.