Can Catholics Support Black Lives Matter? Part Three: Is BLM Marxist?

Last updated on: September 17, 2020 at 2:02 pm by Gabriel Blanchard

Can Catholics Support Black Lives Matter? Part Three: Is BLM Marxist? 2020-09-17T14:02:38-04:00 Gabriel Blanchard

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Continued from Part One: Intro to BLM and Part Two: Marxism.

Last time we looked at the three founders of BLM, and weighed the claim that they’re Marxists. The answer was kind of a soft yes?—soft, because “Marxist” is a more malleable term than people tend to think. But still a soft yes.

However, this doesn’t in itself tell us whether BLM as such is Marxist. If a group of Catholics found a hospital, that doesn’t automatically mean it’s a Catholic hospital, though it might be. Christians probably founded most American political parties, but that doesn’t make any of them Christian parties. So what would make BLM, as an organization, Marxist?

The obvious answer is that BLM would be Marxist if it relied on or promoted Marxist thought. Our quick-and-dirty summary from last time was that Marxism says power and money are the main driving forces of history, and capitalism is bad because it exploits the poor to unfairly keep the rich in power. Is that the ideology of BLM?

Well, it certainly isn’t in their “What We Believe” page. They mention “economic status” as a possible source of oppression exactly once, devoting most of their self-articulation to issues of race and violence (as their name suggests). This is not a primarily class-based analysis of society. They spend more time talking about the family than they do talking about economic issues. Insofar as fascism is ethnonationalist and racist, BLM is clearly antifascist; but antifascism is not equivalent to Marxism by any means. Marxists are normally antifascists, but lots of other groups are antifascist as well. Judging from the stated goals of BLM, I’d characterize it as “not Marxist.” Not because it’s anti-Marxist (it isn’t), but because it’s talking about different issues.

Photograph by Joe Cardamone. See thejoecardamone.com for more of his work.

But why would Marxists organize a group that isn’t Marxist? I don’t know, maybe because they’re capable of taking an interest in more than one thing? You can have a problem with both racist violence and exploiting of the poor. In fact, you should! And building a coalition with people who maybe don’t agree with you about everything, but do agree with you about some specific issue, can be an important way of promoting that issue. It’s exactly what the pro-life movement has done. And in the interview quoted in Part Two, Patrisse Khan-Cullors said that they want to build a movement that’s helpful to a lot of Black people, not just the ones who happen to be Marxists.

Of course, maybe this is just a devious ploy to get their Marxist agenda in secretly. But maybe lots of things. Maybe Our Lady of Guadalupe was an ingenious ploy on Satan’s part to get people to worship Mary as a false idol. If you start with the assumption that the person you’re talking to or about is a liar, then everything becomes evidence against them. For myself, unless somebody can offer me concrete evidence that the founders of BLM are liars, I prefer not to make such a nasty assumption about strangers.

Continued in Part Four: Violence, Part Five: Reporting on Violence, Part Six: Is BLM Violent?, Part Seven: Is BLM Anti-Family?, Part Eight: Does BLM Support the Gay Agenda?, Part Nine: Does BLM Support Abortion?, and Part Ten: So What?

Previous Post

August 11, 2020

Can Catholics Support Black Lives Matter? Part Two: Marxism

Next Post

August 21, 2020 Can Catholics Support Black Lives Matter? Part Four: Violence

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abuse antifascism art bad Catholic celibacy chastity Church crucifixion culture war eros forgiveness gay gender homophobia ikons language liturgy peace poems politics Pope Francis prayer pro-life race recommendations reform repentance review sacraments saints satire scandal schism scripture sex suffering theology Uncategorized violence

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is the shortest verse in the Bible?

Select your answer to see how you score.

"God is love." "Rejoice always." "I am." "Jesus wept."