Prominent Christian Socialists
The British Labour Party, Australian Labor Party and New Democratic Party of Canada have both been influenced by Christian socialism, and some figures from both parties could be considered to be Christian socialists, depending on the definition of "socialism" used.
Former British Labour leader Tony Blair is a member of the Christian Socialist Movement although his adherence to Christian Socialist ideals is highly disputed, as he is much further to the right than most "socialists".
Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd identified himself as an "old-fashioned Christian socialist" in a 2003 interview with The Australian Financial Review, later writing in 2006: "A Christian perspective, informed by a social gospel or Christian socialist tradition, should not be rejected contemptuously by secular politicians as if these views are an unwelcome intrusion into the political sphere." However he also described socialism as an "arcane, 19th century" doctrine and stated that "I am not a socialist. I have never been a socialist and I never will be a socialist."
As well as political figures such as Tony Blair and Kevin Rudd, Irish radio star Joe Duffy claims in his autobiography to be a "Christian socialist" who went to Mass every day during college and expresses admiration for the now disgraced Bishop of Galway Eamon Casey.
The following list includes other well-known Christian socialists:
- Benigno S. Aquino, Jr., martyr of Philippine democracy, who described himself as a "born again" Catholic and a Christian Socialist
- Edward Bellamy, author of Looking Backward
- Francis Bellamy, original author of the Pledge of Allegiance
- Karl Barth, theologian
- Tony Benn, British Parliamentarian and Campaigner
- Robert Malachy Burke
- Walt Brown
- Hugo Chávez, Former President of Venezuela
- Mauricio Funes
- Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador
- Dorothy Day, Co-Founder of the Catholic Worker Movement
- Percy Dearmer
- Tommy Douglas, former Premiere of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan; leader of the first socialist government in North America; father of Canadian medicare. Former leader of the socialist Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in Canada, which won five back-to-back majority provincial governments in Saskatchewan. Later, when the CCF merged with the Canadian Labour Congress to become the modern-day secular and more social-democratic New Democratic Party of Canada, Douglas was elected its first leader. The NDP is currently the second largest party in the Canadian House of Commons and the holder of the title of The Official Opposition. According to polls/surveys conducted by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Canada's public broadcaster), Tommy Douglas has been consistently voted as "The Most Important Canadian" for three years in a row.
- Diane Drufenbrock
- Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator and critical pedagogy theorist
- Vekoslav Grmič, a Slovenian Roman Catholic bishop, writer, essayist and public figure
- Thomas J. Hagerty
- Keir Hardie, Co-founder of the British Labour Party
- Chris Hedges
- Thomas Hughes
- Sir David Fletcher Jones
- Toyohiko Kagawa
- Tetsu Katayama
- Helen Keller
- Michael Joseph Savage, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and leader of the New Zealand Labour Party
- Charles Kingsley, novelist
- Edvard Kocbek, a Slovenian thinker, poet and politician
- Janez Evangelist Krek
- George Lansbury, former Leader of the British Labour Party
- Father Walter Lini, for whom Christianity and socialism held strong similarities and could be combined to form the basis of Melanesian socialism
- John Ludlow
- Margaret MacDonald, the wife of UK Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald
- F. O. Matthiessen
- Frederick Denison Maurice, founding father of British Christian Socialism, and founder of The Working Men's College.
- Jürgen Moltmann
- Brian P. Moore, a candidate for the 2008 US Presidential elections
- Morrissey, musician
- Reinhold Niebuhr, theologian
- Huub Oosterhuis
- Karl Polanyi
- Dorothee Sölle
- Donald Soper, Baron Soper
- R. H. Tawney
- Norman Thomas
- Paul Tillich
- Cornel West, american academic and commentator
- Brooke Foss Westcott
- Jackson Stitt Wilson (1868–1942), a Methodist minister and socialist mayor of Berkeley, California from 1911 to 1913.
- Frank P. Zeidler, ex-Milwaukee mayor and Socialist Party USA presidential candidate
- Michael Moore, American documentary film-maker.
Read more about this topic: Social Christianity
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