Christianity And Communism: Essay, Research Paper

Christianity and communism:A Study of Black Boy Wright’s experiences with Christianity in the south were comparable to his encounters with communism in the South. The tactics of both groups were at times similar and extreme. While in the south, living with his grandmother, Wright was subjected to heavy recruitment by his family to join the church. In the north, after joining the communist party, party members heavily recruited him. Both groups thought he was an outsider until he joined. The church felt he was unholy, the party felt he was not committed to the “struggle.” The church in the south, The Seventh Day Adventist Church, made Wright an outcast in his own home. After he embarrassed his granny in church she refused to even acknowledge his existence. His grandmother considered him a ghost as if he never existed. After he left the church she considered him dead to her. “I have nothing to do with whether you go to school or not,” she said. “You left the church and you are on your own. You are with the world. You’re dead to me, dead to Christ.” (P.144) Granny’s attitude toward Richard after he left the church was one of prejudice because he didn’t believe in the system of religion that she followed. Richard was hesitant in following the church. He felt that it was immoral the way the church recruited members. The church would use scare tactics to increase its membership. By saying the soul was doomed for hell, the church would scare people into becoming members to save their souls. His mother’s church, a Protestant church, used other tactics to recruit Wright into its grasp. The Protestant church tried to use Richard’s friends to recruit him. They used guilt to try to influence his decision. “‘We don’t want to push you,’ they said delicately implying that if I wanted to associate with them I would have to join.”(p.151) During the revival the preacher isolated the people not associated with the church in different levels. First by who was no a member then by those who were not members but still Christian. Finally the few young men who had no religion were isolated; deacons were dispersed to discuss the matter of a religion with the few remaining. It was like a pack of dogs sent to retrieve the kill after a hunt. They quickly took them somewhere away from the group to speak to them. These tactics of isolation and embarrassment were like guerilla tactics to Wright. They basically assaulted him to join a church. He felt he was being conned into becoming a member. When Wright went to Chicago, he fell in with the communist party because he thought it would help him become a writer. He went to the John Reed club thinking that he would not be allowed because he was black. When he was welcomed he was slightly alarmed by their acceptance. He went to the john reed club because of his friend Sol. Wright was apprehensive at the meeting wondering if they were being nice to him because he was black.” Were they treating me courteously because I was a Negro? I must let cold reason guide me with these people.” (P.317) Soon he was working on the communist magazine Left Front. He became influenced by the writings in the communist publications. He was writing about the struggles of the black man and the worker. He related them and the communist party thought it was a way to recruit more people. The communist group he had associated with impressed him by their actions and hard work to help establish artists. “I was convinced, and my response was to set myself to the task of making Negroes know what Communists were.”(P.321)

When he joined the party it was after he decided to not when he was forced into it. The difference is that he was forced out unwillingly. The religious groups and the communist party had similarities. The churches in the south were adamant that they were right. That was the same as the communist party, they believed they were in the right. During the depression the country wanted something to believe in, something to get them out of poverty. The communist party organizers took advantage of this fact. The church in the south found a group of people wanting something righteous to believe in, the churches took advantage of this fact. Wright saw this trait within the church but failed to see it in the communist party until to late. Communism is a great system on paper but in reality it is impossible to put into use correctly. There will always be a ruling class in all societies because of human nature. Also in a communist society those that do work for the betterment of society will be making up for those that do not care since they are being rewarded on the same scale either way. The communist party in America was trying to recruit others but was never organized enough to gain real power in society. Richard saw the power struggles in the group and saw how weak the party was at the time. The power struggles were usually between men who began to think for themselves and the party began to fear an uprising of a sort. If a man was able to think for himself he would not need the party to so it for him. This scared the leaders of the communist party. “It was irrational that Communists should hate what they called ‘intellectuals,’ or anybody who tried to think for himself. I had fled men who did not like the color of my skin and now I was among men who did not like the tone of my thoughts.”(P.369)The relationship between the communist party and the churches were seen within in their membership. The party controlled its members with a short leash it seemed and the church used its members to recruit more people. Both grew stronger with more people and seemed to become more aggressive the longer Richard knew them. The communist party wanted to control him just as the church had. Both laid down rules that Wright was supposed to follow to become a model member of both societies. His lack of regard for these rules put him out of favor with both groups.