Marx or Jesus

I had a social studies teacher in junior high who was a self-proclaimed card-carrying Communist. He was passionate about redistribution of wealth and redressing the wrongs that had been suffered by the common man. He was also white. I mention this because I’m guessing that he asked to be assigned to teach in my junior high, which was predominantly African-American (this was before busing) and next door to a high school that had been the scene of race riots in the years previous. I don’t remember specifically anything he taught us in the classroom, but I do remember that he took us on a field trip to the Fillmore district and then to see one of San Francisco’s housing projects (both were in African American neighborhoods) to impress on us both the beauty of African American arts and culture and to see the results of social injustice. Not exactly the planetarium or an introduction to the symphony.

Obviously my teacher was driven by a vision of the world and the sense that he could make a difference by molding young hearts and minds. His vision came from Karl Marx. He believed in the power of education and used his influence to affect classrooms full of junior highers, many of whom were living the injustices that he felt so strongly needed to be corrected.

And it makes me wonder: What gets me out of bed in the morning? How much am I trying to make a difference in this world? How much am I trying to influence others to make a difference? My vision of a better world doesn’t come from Marx, it comes from Jesus. Jesus was like my social studies teacher: driven by a vision, teaching that vision to others, convinced that his students would make a difference in the world. But instead of a vision drawn from economic theory, Jesus’ vision came from the heart of God. And so his methods came from God’s Word. And his means were and are people who are filled with the Holy Spirit.

It sounds a little weird to compare Jesus to my social studies teacher. But what I’m really doing is comparing myself to my social studies teacher. And I have to ask myself: based on the evidence of my life and of his, whose vision of the world is more compelling, that of Marx or Jesus?