Then truth is darker than darkness
Like most leaders of the early evangelical left, Keller’s main critique of Marxism was its materialism, not its moral claims. Karl Marx’s solutions were incorrect because he grounded them in atheism and ignored the reality of human sin. However, despite these major flaws, Keller believed Marxist hearts were in the right place. He stated in a sermon at Redeemer:
“The people I read who were the disciples of Marx were not villains. They were not fools. They cared about people. . . there are vast populations, millions of people, who have been in absolute serfdom and peasantry and poverty for years and years, and there’s no way they’re going to get out. There’s no upward mobility. See, the people who read Marx said, ‘We have to do something about this.’ They weren’t fools.”
Tim Keller
Keller, February 16, 1997, “With a Religious Crowd,” The Tim Keller Sermon Archive; Keller, October 22, 2000, “Made For Stewardship,” The Tim Keller Sermon Archive; Keller, July, 15, 2001, “Arguing About Politics,” The Tim Keller Sermon Archive.
From Online Article – Tim Keller & Progressive Evangelicalism
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Can you believe someone who believes this and said this asinine tomfoolery in a Sermon has become one of the intellectual go-to guys in the Reformed world?
1.) Many of the biggest murderers and revolutionaries in history rose to power claiming to care about the poor and oppressed. The reality was another thing.
2;) Someone needs to ask Keller to provide some examples of where adopting Marxism has lifted people out of serfdom or provided them with upward mobility or personal liberty. The answer of course is … Nowhere.
Maybe Keller is like Trotsky – the fact that none of his predictions have come true just proves what a far-sighted visionary he was.
3.) Maybe Keller could give some examples of the disciples of Marx who were not villains. I’d love to see that list of names.
4.) I also seriously doubt that the disciples of Marx cared about people. Perhaps I could concede that they cared about people in the abstract but Marxists are famous for loving people in the abstract while hating the concrete individual.
5.) What does Keller do with the Holodomor “Harvest of Sorrow? What does he do with the Cambodian Killing Fields? What does the man do with the Chinese Cultural Revolution or Great Leap Forward? What does Keller do with the Vietnamese boat people or the Cuban boat people? Was being tortured and murdered in the most horrendous manner possible superior to no upward mobility?
6.) Keller belies a definite Limousine Liberal affectation here. He is all theory and refuses to see that Marxism is born of hatred and produces envy and the product of hatred where ever it is implemented.
7.) I’m completely bumfuzzled that a Reformed minister who says he loves Jesus Christ and His Gospel could say something this hateful and profoundly stupid. How does a man get through all the Christian training required to be a minister and still have this in his world and life view? Let Keller spend a week in one of the old Soviet Gulags and see if he’s so cheery about Marxism once he gets out. Honestly, if I heard a man say this in a pulpit I’d be trying to get his sorry Marxist ass defrocked.
8.) Like Finney before him, Keller doubtless had the best of intentions but Keller’s life and influence have been another example that good intentions pave the road to hell.
