(No, we're not shutting down the Facebook page or this website. Bear with me.)
Since the days when I ran a medium-tier page on a notable Progressive Christian blog, I have thought of the possibility space around an organized, communist Christian movement. Red Star Ministry had its genesis in those days, as I and others (some of whom are still affiliated with Red Star and some of whom are not) began to experiment with both mass work and spiritual gatherings incorporating a more radical understanding of the Gospel than any we had experienced in such spaces before.
We began with weekly Bible studies and alternative-church services under various names, sometimes in the homes of members and sometimes (auspiciously) in the sanctuary of a historic church here in Chicago. When the city of Chicago suspended food delivery to CPS students during the height of the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, we organized an emergency food distribution to West Side residents. We used that experience again in 2023, partnering with neighborhood organizations to distribute food and harm reduction materials to homeless and working-class residents on the West Side of Chicago.
During all this time, we used the internet to promote revolutionary Christianity. Five years in, the response has been inspiring. Our Facebook page has grown to have over 2,500 dedicated followers and high levels of positive interaction. While that's obviously nothing in Influencer-Land, for an incredibly niche combination of religion and politics it's notable.
More than the social media metrics, we have been encouraged by the response from individuals, both online and offline. We regularly receive messages from people all over the world thanking us for giving voice to ideas that they had never felt able to express before, and often looking for direct ministry. We have even been sought out at in-person events when we have helped to sponsor them.
Many of the people who have reached out to us are passionate and devout Christians who either feel unwelcome or unfulfilled with Christian life. They are gay or trans and cannot find a church to welcome them, or their church preaches acceptance and tolerance without any real material commitment to liberation, or they left Christianity due to the bigotry and oppression of many Christian churches and are now returning, intrigued, at a vision of revolutionary Christianity they had never thought possible before.
Perhaps, we have begun to realize, our vision of Christianity need not be so niche.
Our core leadership has spent the past several years discussing theory and theology, and engaging in the organizing experiments mentioned above, to garner the necessary experience and foundation to make Red Star into what we have always known it must become: a revolutionary organization, dedicated to practicing the Kingdom of God in the material world.
In the coming months and years, we plan to further develop this mission. The world is full of oppression and struggle as the crises of capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism fold in upon themselves in infinite regression. As the Psalmist wrote, "All the foundations of the Earth are shaken." All revolutionary and progressive forces must rise to meet the challenge of this cascade of historical moments, and if Christians are going to be a part of that rising, then we must be organized. That is the purpose of Red Star Ministry.
We do not claim to be "the vanguard" of communists or Christians or communist Christians. We take inspiration from many sources, such as the pathbreaking Christians involved in the Fillipino National Democratic Movement; the prophetic voices of the black church such as James Cone and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; the spirit of Latin American liberation theologians like Gustavo Gutierrez and guerrillas like Camilo Torres Restrepo; the revolutionary praxis of martyrs like John Brown and Nat Turner and Toussaint Louverture; the fearless example of queer Christians like Marsha P. Johnson; and many others, both Christian and non-Christian. We are fundamentally in solidarity with all other genuinely revolutionary socialist movements, religious and otherwise.
It is impossible and meaningless to predict what the future holds for this project. All of us involved have hopes for where it might go, but we are confident that whether through winning successful gains, or learning lessons from failure, it is a useful and necessary endeavor.
The ideas contained here will be clarified, expanded, and iterated upon going forward. This post merely serves as a personal explanation from me, one of Red Star's co-founders, about why we are taking the steps we are. I hope that it resonates with you reading this, and look forward to the coming of that stateless, classless society free from oppression and bigotry which Christ called the Kingdom of God.
-Christian
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