Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani faced swift backlash following his inaugural address, delivered Thursday from the steps of City Hall after being sworn in on a Quran by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
The 34-year-old democratic socialist drew widespread attention for remarks in which he framed his governing philosophy around collectivist ideals, declaring, “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”
That line rapidly circulated across social media, prompting intense criticism from users who voiced alarm over what they viewed as an endorsement of socialist ideology and its historical consequences.
Several Christian pastors and theologians responded publicly, warning that communism has repeatedly produced outcomes far different from what their advocates promise, according to reporting by The Christian Post.
“History's tragic experiments with communism show that collectivism is not ‘warmth,’ but a path that leads to totalitarianism and death,” said Paul Chappell, senior pastor of Lancaster Baptist Church in Lancaster, California. “Liberty, responsibility, and Christian compassion are the pillars of a free and moral society.”
Andrew T. Walker, associate dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, sharply criticized voters who supported Mamdani, arguing that they had ignored hard-won historical lessons and the many sacrifices made to keep socialism from gaining power in the United States.
“America spent decades trying to protect the homeland from this godless, rancid ideology and New Yorkers voluntarily embraced it because ‘vibes’ replaced civic literacy, historical awareness, and basic intelligence. To their eternal shame and our embarrassment. Evil and stupid incarnate,” Walker said.
Josh Howerton, senior pastor of the multi-campus Lakepointe Church in Dallas, Texas, noted that Christianity and Marxism have been fundamentally opposed since the latter’s inception.
Howerton pointed to an 1889 sermon by Charles Spurgeon on Isaiah 66, in which Spurgeon condemned “Democratic Socialism” as a counterfeit gospel that sought to “set up a kingdom for Christ without the new birth or the pardon of sin,” while treating the Cross as an “enemy.”
“The latter-day gospel is not the gospel by which we were saved. To me it seems a tangle of ever-changing dreams,” Spurgeon preached.
“It is, by the confession of its inventors, the outcome of the period, the monstrous birth of a boasted ‘progress,’ the scum from the caldron of conceit. It has not been given by the infallible revelation of God: it does not pretend to have been. It is not divine: it has no inspired Scripture at its back.”
Catholic Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota said the language in Mamdani’s speech was deeply troubling.
“Collectivism in its various forms is responsible for the deaths of at least 100 million people in the last century. Socialist and Communist forms of government around the world today — Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, etc. — are disastrous,” Barron said.
“Catholic social teaching has consistently condemned socialism and has embraced the market economy, which people like Mayor Mamdani caricature as ‘rugged individualism.’ In fact, it is the economic system that is based upon the rights, freedom, and dignity of the human person. For God's sake, spare me the ‘warmth of collectivism.’”
