Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate!
Throughout this week, the world has mourned the loss of a great leader in former President Ronald Wilson Reagan. He is rightfully credited with contributing to the end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism. But who first predicted the eventual demise of Marxist dogma? The answer has immense implications for followers of Christ.
Over 70 years ago—in the 1930’s—Antonio Gramsci was one of the first to predict the death of Marxism. He said communism failed to make a compelling case to the higher echelons of European society. In other words, it was intellectually and morally vacuous. It didn’t persuade, for example, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Gramsci did not have an axe to grind—he was a deeply committed Marxist. But he acknowledged what few would—that Marxism appealed to the masses but had not gained significant followers in politics, commerce, the arts, education, and media. This group he called the “leading cultural opponents.” Gramsci predicted the communist movement would eventually collapse if it could not engage and influence these leaders (he coined the term “gatekeepers”).
We all know the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. And while Marxism’s collapse has been incomplete and ongoing, Gramsci’s prescient remarks should serve as a reminder for followers of Christ seeking to engage and influence society. For example, according to a report by IslamOnLine, an Islamic website, 14,000 of England’s “elite” have already converted to Islam, with more on the way. The report cites “the first authoritative study of the phenomenon,” carried out by the Sunday Times on February 22, reporting that “some of Britain’s top landowners, celebrities, and the offspring of senior establishment figures” have converted to Islam in recent years. ”I have received letters from people who are put off by the wishy-washy standards of contemporary Christianity, and they are looking for a religion which does not compromise too much with the modern world,” said Charles Le Gai Eaton, author of Islam and the Destiny of Man.
Theodore Roszak once described faith in Americaas “privately engaging… but publicly irrelevant.” Peter Berger depicted the United Statesas “a nation of Indians ruled by Swedes”—Americans are as religious as people in India, the world’s most religious country. Yet significant sectors of American leadership are more typical of Sweden, one of the world’s most secular of societies. The Washington Post, for example, recently reported that only 5% of those involved in media go to church. Western Christianity points to tremendous church growth today. But does it appeal more to the masses while failing to gain followers in politics, commerce, the arts, education, and media? What does the future hold for Western Christianity?
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