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“The Appeal of Socialism and the Case Against It”

“The Appeal of Socialism and the Case Against It”

Last updated on: September 22, 2026 at 9:09 pm by Dan Peterson

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“The Appeal of Socialism and the Case Against It” 2026-09-22T21:09:35-06:00 Dan Peterson

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A painting, by Isaak Brodsky (1884-1939) of a speech that I gave to a Soviet Communist Party audience on 1 May 1920. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image). Українська: Виступ В.І. Леніна на проводах частин Червоної Армії на польський фронт 5 травня 1920 року. 1933. Зверніть увагу що 1) виступ був 1 травня 2) Лев Каменєв і Лев Троцький зникли з картини. Будь ласка, перегляньте зображення в розділі other versions нижче.

It’s not a particularly well-guarded secret that my enthusiasm for the presidency of Mr. Donald J. Trump is, umm, limited. Accordingly, I’ve not only been described as a supporter of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden but pronounced a liberal, a Democrat, a leftist, a “libtard,” a globalist, a socialist, a Marxist, and even a Communist. Now, though, the cat is out of the proverbial bag. I’ve fully outed myself in Meridian Magazine: “The Appeal of Socialism and the Case Against It.”

George Frideric Handel (Georg Friedrich Händel, 1685-1759)

(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Once again, Jonn Claybaugh has contributed a set of concise and helpful notes for teachers and students of the Sunday School curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: “Come, Follow Me — Old Testament Study and Teachings Helps: September 28-October 4: Isaiah 40-49 — “Comfort Ye My People””

The University Church of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford, as viewed from Radcliffe Square. The walls of All Souls College are visible on the left and the chapel of Brasenose College on the far right. C. S. Lewis delivered “The Weight of Glory” as a sermon or address on 8 June 1941. Alister McGrath earned all three of his doctorates (in molecular biophysics, divinity, and intellectual history, from the University of Oxford. (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

I want to share here a passage that I marked in Alister E. McGrath, Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find Faith (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books: 2012):

In the previous chapter, we argued that the Christian faith was fundamentally reasonable. It cannot be proved by reason, but then, neither can anything that really matters. Older generations, needlessly submitting to a rather aggressive rationalism, argued that we should believe only what could be proved absolutely. That viewpoint is now held by very few people. . . Reason, as the great Italian poet Dante noted back in the fourteenth century, has short wings.

But this doesn’t mean beliefs that cannot be proved absolutely are unreasonable. Far from it. When it comes to theories of life or “worldviews,” the evidence available to us just isn’t good enough to prove that any of them — including atheism — are right. In the end, we have to make these decisions as a matter of faith. Otherwise we must declare every worldview to lie beyond resolution. We believe our worldview is the best way to make sense of things, but we realize the matter ultimately lies beyond proof here in this world.

For the Christian, this situation has to be seen against the backdrop of belief in heaven. “We live by faith, not by sight” (2 For. 5:7 NIV). For now, we walk through a shadow land, but one day the sun will rise, and we will see things as they really are. “For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near” (Rom. 13:11-12). These phrases from Paul invite us to think of the Christian life as walking in the dark. The dawn is nearer than when we first began this walk, but it has yet to happen. In the meantime we have to cross an unknown landscape, hoping we will arrive safely at our destination. We cannot fully see the road ahead offs; nevertheless, we trust in the Lord to guide us home. As Paul famously puts it, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12).(94)

In my own writing and speaking about apologetics, I tend to use words such as evidence and evidences and the verbs to suggest, to indicate, and to hint. By contrast, I tend overwhelmingly, to avoid the words proof and to prove in all but a very small number of cases. I’m sometimes asked to name the one most impressive “proof” or bit of evidence that I see on behalf of the claims of the Restoration. In my view, though, it simply doesn’t work that way. And I certainly don’t see myself as engaged in such an enterprise — although I do think, very much, that some evidences stronger than others and that at least a few are very strong indeed. Dr. McGrath lays out the kind of case that, in my judgment, Latter-day Saint “apologists” have been laying out for two or three generations now:

A clue is something that suggests, but does not prove. Clues have a cumulative significance, pointing to a deeper pattern of meaning that gives each of them their true meaning. One clue on its own might be nothing more than suggestive, a straw in the wind. Yet a cluster of clues begins to disclose a comprehensive pattern. Each clue builds on the others, given them a collective force that transcends their individual importance. (95)

One of the happy by-products of the Interpreter Foundation’s 2021 Witnesses film project was a partial reunion of the Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith family. James G. Jordan persuaded them to sit for this informal family portrait — perhaps the first that was ever taken of them in full color.

Here’s an appalling horror that I’ve managed to retrieve from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™: “Latter-day Saints among the most likely Americans to report happy family life, says major new study: Pew Research Center releases new data from a survey on the religious life, retention and diversity of members of the Church of Jesus Christ”

There is, however, one small silver lining in the data, one bright sliver of hope, for those who dislike happiness and who oppose marriage: The Latter-day Saint retention rate is down. This represents a major victory for opponents of the Church, who can take considerable gratification from the fact that there are more, and will evidently be more, unmarried and unhappy people in the world than there would otherwise have been.

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