The focus here is on similarities and parallels between socialism and Christianity.

The obvious similarity is between monotheism and the monopolistic state. The perhaps not so obvious similarity is based on socialism being derived from Christian individualism. Marx's explanation of it is an obscure perfecting the individual as a social being but we can think of it as seeking individual freedom from, as the article puts it, the corporate state.

We see the same influence of Christianity toward individualism in capitalism, i.e., economic liberalism and the liberal state--with, some would argue, the same deleterious effect.

There are contrasts. Socialism is predicated on equality while liberalism/capitalism is predicated on individual liberty.

So the topic is open to comparisons.

And the article is open to criticism. The author is David Byrne, no, not of the Talking Heads. Here's a brief bio: https://www.crisismagazine.com/author/david-byrne.


What Socialism Owes Christianity

...the similarities between Christianity and socialism are not coincidences. They are influences. Christianity, after all, is the most powerful intellectual movement the Western world has seen. It furnished the Western mind with idea of equality.

Christians worship the immaterial, transcendent God. He is the source of all goodness and justice. The morally righteous seek him; the happy find him. The best political systems bow to God. Socialists value equality above all. It is their Holy of Holies, before which everything else must bow. The morally righteousness seek equality; the happy find it. All political systems must promote equality. The struggle is intense. For Christians, God (good) struggles against Satan (evil) for supremacy. The modern socialist interprets the world in the same way: A (class) struggle rages between poor (good) and rich (bad). The fate of humanity rests in the balance.
Here I beg to differ: Some systems promote equality while others liberty.

The Christian wants to bind man to God; The socialist wants to bind man to man. In a sense, both are collectivist movements because neither view man as distinct and isolated. Man owes everything to God, or to each other. Christ proclaims in the Gospel of John: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” President Obama, not coincidently, expressed the same idea when he famously declared in 2012: “Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” The common theme is that individuals achieve nothing on their own.
Here I would substitute "The socialist wants to bind man to man" with "The socialist wants to bind man to the state" where the state is abstractly a Rousseauian representative of man. The article corrects itself later.

The Christian disagrees [with hedonism]. Only by living a life consistent with God’s moral precepts can we find freedom. 1 Peter 2:16 declares: “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” In the Gospel of John, Jesus says: “And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (8:32). God gave us freedom, so real freedom cannot be separate from him. He brings us freedom from fear and anxiety.

...The socialist disagrees, arguing that socialism enhances freedom by creating freedom from corporate influence. The higher the taxes and the more collectivist our society, the more freedom we have. “True freedom does not occur without economic security,” contends Bernie Sanders. Or, as Karl Marx wrote in the Communist Manifesto: “In place of the old bourgeois [capitalist] society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.” Freedom comes by limiting free markets and establishing socialism. For Christians and socialists, freedom cannot exist outside of the value system. Christians gave socialists the idea that freedom is more than individuals pursuing their own self-interest.
I'll skip the part on "Socialists have also inherited the linear conception of history from Christianity." It's there if you're interested.

Socialism descends from Christianity, just as Christianity descends from Judaism (this lineage may explain why “secular” Jews from Karl Marx to Bernie Sanders are disproportionately socialists). During the Middle Ages, many intelligent Christians considered themselves distinct from Jews. They were wrong. The same can be said for any socialist today who considers himself distinct from Christianity. After all, equality is a Christian idea. It was the Christians who first proposed that all people are equal (in the eyes of God). God has no favorites. Salvation is open to everyone—equally.

Two of the greatest thinkers of the nineteenth century, Alexis de Tocqueville and Friedrich Nietzsche, recognized that equality is foremost a Christian concept....

There are, of course, critical differences between the two ethical systems, just as there are critical differences between Christianity and Judaism, most notably in the gods they worship. Christians worship Christ, socialists worship equality. Yet Christ emerged from Jewish traditions. And equality emerged from Christianity. Without one, there cannot be the other.