Mutant Social Growths, or Where is the religious Left's accountability?

An eleven-year old First Things article by Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley still has relevance today.

In the summer '94 issue of Dissent, Marxist historian Eugene Genovese acknowledged that Marxism-Leninism "broke all records for mass slaughter, piling up tens of millions of corpses in less than three- quarters of a century," and charged that the left knew it from the beginning but remained silent and was therefore guilty of abetting mass murder. Until the left owns up to its mistakes, Genovese argued, it will lack credibility in addressing current social ills.

One province of the left stands in particular need of repentance: the religious left. When the Chinese regime was at the nadir of its brutality, the religious left was hailing it as a bastion of social progress, if not the very kingdom of God on earth. [...]

"China's Communist revolution has propelled a backward, poverty- stricken, virtually medieval society into the modern world," wrote Mr. Chinoy in his introduction [to a National Council of Churches publication], adding that starvation had been eliminated and that "serving the people is the dominant social value."

Moreover, Chinoy added, "A violent revolution and bitter civil war were necessary to sweep away the decay, exploitation, and backwardness of old China." Further, "With the Communist victory, the revolutionary process did not stop. Indeed, it was accelerated." But, the editor conceded, problems remained. "The recent Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the present campaign against Confucius indicate that traditional values and attitudes still exist in China, even as the Chinese attempt to eliminate them." [...]

Most of the mass atrocities committed by the Chinese Communist regime were already known when the NCC published its worshipful tract. But the Council has never issued an apology and the religious left in general has never been called to account for its spiritual lend-lease to totalitarian regimes.

Billingsley went on to report that the National Council of Churches was spawning the leftist Interfaith Alliance, and suggested that no heed should be paid to them until they 'fessed up their complicity in the horrors of 20th Century socialism. But unfortunately, no leftist group is so odious that they can't get a respectful hearing in the news media. I for one am most unwilling to be berated about wiretaps, for instance, from people who have been vigorous cheerleaders for damn near every murderous "People's Democracy" that's come down the pike.