Religious institutions

[Red Commissar]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but it's been bugging me for sometime.

In the event of a revolution what is to be done in countries with these institutions, particularly deeply entrenched ones? Examples would be the Vatican in Rome or "Holy Sites" such as Mecca and Jerusalem.

Would they be closed? Made into museums? Destroyed? Allowed to operate?

What of more international and far reaching bodies such as the Vatican? Would they be forced out or kept in?

Sorry if this sounds like a mess, but I hope it's clear enough for my point to get across? I suppose this ties into the question of religious policy in general.

[RichardAWilson]

Marxism isn’t opposed to the private practice of religion.


The Marxian Agenda is for the Church and the State to remain separated.

Nonetheless, Marx believed that the transition to socialism would lead to a withering of religious influence in private life. To answer your question: The Vatican would remain a nation-state and Holy Sites, such as Jerusalem and Mecca, would continue to operate.

[Kamos]

Would they be closed? Made into museums? Destroyed? Allowed to operate?

This. Organised religion has to fall, along with all of its symbolic accessories.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but it's been bugging me for sometime.

In the event of a revolution what is to be done in countries with these institutions, particularly deeply entrenched ones? Examples would be the Vatican in Rome or "Holy Sites" such as Mecca and Jerusalem.

Would they be closed? Made into museums? Destroyed? Allowed to operate?

What of more international and far reaching bodies such as the Vatican? Would they be forced out or kept in?

Sorry if this sounds like a mess, but I hope it's clear enough for my point to get across? I suppose this ties into the question of religious policy in general.

How revolutionary workers decide to deal with things will depend on how the revolution unfolds. As a comrade of mine who went to France said, all tours of Paris go something like this: "...and this public house used to be a church... and over here, once a church, this building was made into a post-office after the Revolution of...". If institutions like the Mormon chrich or Catholic church are aggressively counter-revolutionary, then most likely people will take measures to prevent them from being sites to organize counter-revolution from: this may mean just arresting the counter-revolutionary leaders and providing "moderates" or forces connected to that religion, but allied to the workers to take over or they may just have their doors shut. Institutions who stand on the sidelines or are supportive of the worker's struggle will probably be more or less allowed to negotiate with workers.

I'm an atheist, but I think it is simply impossible to regulate ideas and would be poisonous for a real worker's democracy to attempt to do this - it would only drive some potential allies away or push some fence-sitters to reject the dominance of the working class and go over to the reactionary side. Once minority-class rule has been ended, people have to have the freedom to hold even irrational or mistaken beliefs - they should be allowed to believe in UFOs or Christ or Buddah as long as their actions do not aid people seeking to undo democracy or worker's power.