Is Karl Marx, the acknowledged father of communism, more popular than the Bible?
At least on the subject of work and people's right to eat, the answer, surprisingly, turned out to be "yes."
In fact, the words of two other notable personalities—U.S. independent Senator Bernie Sanders and U.S. economist Milton Friedman—enjoyed higher popularity than the Word of God among American millennials.
The finding comes from a new poll on Americans' attitudes toward socialism, which was recently conducted by YouGov and the Washington, D.C.-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
In its first annual report, the foundation said the survey, conducted with 2,300 respondents, found that nearly two-thirds of millennials agree with Marxist philosophy.
The millennials—comprising the group of people aged 19 to 35 in 2016, or those who reached adulthood around the turn of the 21st century—are now considered America's largest living generation, surpassing the Baby Boomers (those born between the years 1946 and 1964), according to population estimates released recently the U.S. Census Bureau and reported by Pew Research.
According to the survey, 71 percent of the millennials agree with a quote from Sanders that, "A nation will not survive morally or economically when so few have so much, while so many have so little."
Sixty-eight percent of the millennials agree with Friedman's quote, "A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both."
Sixty-four percent of the millennials also agree with Marx when he said, "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his need."
However only 53 percent of the millennials agree with a related verse from the Bible that says, "If any would not work, neither should he eat."
The report said "the study found a growing acceptance of Socialist and Marxist viewpoints among a younger generation of Americans who did not grow up during the Cold War."
The results of the study are a cause for concern for Marion Smith, the executive director of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, according to The Christian Post. "An emerging generation of Americans have little understanding of the collectivist system and its dark history," Smith noted. "Unfortunately, this report, which we intend to release on an annual basis, confirms this worrisome impression."
