Religion & Liberty Online

Bishop Robert Barron explains Marxism in 21 minutes

Despite Marxism’s growing popularity among young people, church authorities spend little time discussing the topic – and when they do, they often speak in a misleading way. Thankfully, Bishop Robert Barron, the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, addressed the topic at length last week.

He made “Karl Marx and Millennials” the topic of a recent episode of his podcast, “Word on Fire.”

In addition to giving a brief overview of Communist philosophy, Bishop Barron answers such questions as:

Can you be a Marxist without being an atheist?

What is the relationship between private property and freedom?

Is Communism inherently violent?

He also addresses the opportunity cost of reading Karl Marx, and the better material he suggests reading in its place.

You can watch the episode here:

(Photo credit: BrandonVogt1225. This photo has been modified. CC BY-SA 4.0.)

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Rev. Ben Johnson

Rev. Ben Johnson is an Eastern Orthodox priest and served as executive editor of the Acton Institute from 2016 to 2021. His work has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including National Review, the American Spectator, The Guardian, National Catholic Register, Providence, Jewish World Review, Human Events, and the American Orthodox Institute. His personal websites are therightswriter.com and RevBenJohnson.com. You can find him on X: @therightswriter.