Another Way is Possible

Andrew Wilkes is an African Methodist Episcopal minister who serves on the editorial board of Democratic Socialists of America’s online journal, Religious Socialism. Danny Duncan Collum interviewed him in October 2015. Click here to read more about Christianity and socialism in this month's Sojourners. 

Sojourners: Why have you chosen to identify yourself as a socialist?

Andrew Wilkes: What began to change my thoughts is when I realized that another way of organizing land, labor, and capital is possible and was already happening locally, regionally, and in some respects nationally. Gar Alperovitz’s book What Must We Then Do?, John Nichols’ book The “S” Word, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s witness of a black social gospel and democratic socialism all proved seminal to me.

What does it mean to you to call yourself a socialist? Socialism, on a basic level, prioritizes human rights over property rights and our obligations to one another over conventions about the natural, efficient operations of markets. Socialism means a way of making decisions about the use of resources that seeks to end preventable human misery more than turning an ever-increasing profit. It’s an ethical vision that also entails shared sacrifice for mutual gain—for instance, paying more in taxes to support health care, education, and other services that are free at the point of access.

I do not take socialism to mean the complete abolition of private property, contracts between individual parties, or the utter erasure of markets. Instead, socialism for me means the ascendancy of meeting human needs through public provision, cooperative ownership, and private businesses that include collective bargaining and government regulation. It also means that working individuals who produce goods and services have a significant say in shaping, owning, and influencing the institutions that shape their day-to-day quality of life.

How do you see those ideas relating to your Christian identity and Christian ministry? I joined the Religious Socialists of DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) to find an institutional outlet for my political commitments. I think it’s inaccurate to suggest that the Bible can be marshaled in direct support of socialism. I do think that every Christian has to inquire about the society that best represents or foreshadows the dreams and desires of God for humanity. For me, the kind of socialism I’ve just described is the best society.

Being a Christian socialist also means pointing out how capitalism misshapes our loves and desires for possessions. At the consumer level, capitalism often looks like forgetting Jesus’ teaching that life consists of more than the abundance of things and that we ought to be on guard against all kinds of greed.

Do you see potential for the idea of socialism, as you conceive it, to get any serious traction among African Americans? Yes, I do. I think it’s important to note that Martin Luther King Jr., Pauli Murray, bell hooks, and many other notable African-American Christians, lay and clergy, have all espoused socialism. Bayard Rustin and A. Phillip Randolph created or sustained viable, mainstream institutions that put forth socialist viewpoints. It’s important to build on the foundation that already exists.

I’m cool with the fact that some folks of color and white folks aren’t supportive of a socialist project. I don’t denigrate motives because of differing theories of change. However, I’m no longer airbrushing what I consider to be a fundamental problem in American life and the organization of our world economy. There is a Pauline ideal and a religious obligation to keep our conscience clean, which means to fight for what’s right regardless of whether it can be realized entirely in this generation or the next.