Heart of a Marxist View of Humanity

Two decades ago, when Communism still posed a worldwide threat, a Romanian pas­tor named Josif Tson wrote of the contra­diction that lies at the heart of a Marxist view of humanity:

[They teach] their pupils that life is the product of chance combinations of matter, that it is governed by Dar­winian laws of adaptation and survival, and that it is man's only chance. There is no after-life, no "savior" to reward self-sacrifice or to punish egoism or rapacity. After the pupils have been thus taught, I am sent in to teach them to be noble and honorable men and women, expending all their energies on doing good for the benefit of soci­ety, even to the point of self-sacrifice. They must be courteous, tell only the truth, and live a morally pure life. But they lack motivation for goodness. They see that in a purely material world only he who hurries and grabs for himself possesses anything. Why should they be self-denying and hon­est? What motive can be offered them to live lives of usefulness to others?

The Pravda editors conceded to us that they did not know how to motivate people to show compassion. A recent campaign to raise funds for the children of Chernobyl had foundered. The aver­age Soviet citizen would rather spend his money on drink than support needy children. Their own polls had revealed that 70 percent of Soviet parents would not allow their children to have con­tact with a disabled child; 80 percent would not give money to help; some advocated in­fanticide. "How do you reform, change, motivate people?" the editors asked us.

Extracted from Philip Yancey's Finding God in Unexpected Places.