Frequently Asked Questions

The Democratic Socialists of America is the largest socialist organization in the United States, with more than 100,000 members and chapters in all 50 states. It was formed in 1982 from the merger of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, which included many veterans of the “Old Left,” and the New American Movement, which included many people from what was called the New Left. Subsequently, other groups joined as did many individuals who had never been exposed to democratic socialist ideas. DSA believes that working people should run both the economy and society democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few. DSA is a political and activist organization, not a political party. It has chapters on college campuses and in local communities. From study groups to legislative lobbying to working for political candidates to direct actions, DSA members fight for reforms that empower working people and have an impact on systems.

Democratic socialism is a branch of the broader socialist idea. It takes equally seriously the egalitarian and communal arrangement of social goods and the democratic decision-making process by which those arrangements are achieved. No form of capitalism, even a regulated and redistributive one, can ever fully provide ordinary people with a real voice in their workplaces, neighborhoods, and society because capitalism is an individualistic, hierarchical, profit-based system designed by the owning class to exploit others for their own profit. Democratic socialists see the need to build institutions, movements, and viable alternatives that can contribute to the eclipse of capitalism.

The DSA believes that many avenues lead into the democratic road to socialism and that it is possible to pursue these avenues without repeating the mistakes of authoritarian visions of socialism of the past or of regimes that use the term socialism but do not function democratically. The DSA seeks a democracy that creates space for all people to flourish, not just survive; for all people to collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate modern life, such as energy production and transportation; and for all people to see themselves as part of a multiracial working class united in solidarity instead of divided by fear. Single-payer Medicare for All, defunding the police and refunding communities, the Green New Deal, Financial Transaction Taxes, and more are all steps along these avenues toward a freer, more just life. 

The DSA’s Religion and Socialism Working Group is organized by and for DSA members whose religious faith, of whatever sort, is formative both to their spiritual identity and their commitment to democratic socialism. There is a long tradition of religious socialism in the United States that has been ignored or forgotten; in forming this group, the DSA refuses to cede the ground of faith to the religious right. 

Many in faith-based communities hesitate to join a socialist movement because of what they perceive as an anti-religious bias among leftists. The Religion and Socialism Working Group presents itself as a bridge group, to work both with and within faith communities as allies and coalition partners. Examples of such work include the efforts on behalf of housing, immigrant rights, sanctuary cities, religion and labor coalitions, reproductive justice, and LGBTQ+ advocacy.

Religious Socialism is an edited, online forum for the writings of members of the Religious and Socialism Working Group, other DSA members, and any others sympathetic to the principles of democratic socialism who wish to  explore those sympathies in connection with religious practices, actions, organizations, or ideas. It publishes reportage from demonstrations and activities promoting religious socialism; reviews of books, movies, and other works of art from a religious socialist perspective; political, historical, cultural, and theological essays on important debates within the tradition of religious socialism; and much more. The print version of Religious Socialism (which originally had the subtitle of The Journal for People of Faith and Socialism) was founded in 1977 by John Cort, a long-time Christian socialist writer and activist as well as founding chair of the original Religion and Socialism Commission under the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, one of the forerunners of DSA. After Cort’s death, the magazine published less frequently and did not appear in print for several years. It was rebooted as an online publication in 2015.

Representatives from every major religious organization, movement, association, or perspective in the United States has, at one point or another, contributed to Religious Socialism. All forms of Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Restorationist Christianity; all forms of Judaism; all forms of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Confucianism, Daoism, Yoruba, and much more are welcome to share their beliefs as they relate to democratic socialism and use their faith to strengthen the solidarity that democratic socialists feel for one another. Religious Socialism also provides a space for seekers without any formal religious beliefs who wish to articulate and investigate how faith might contribute to their understanding of democratic socialist principles.

The legacy of the dismissive (though also often misunderstood) comment by Karl Marx that religion is a drug that pacifies the masses, helping them endure their class oppression, is a difficult one to ignore, especially because so many people in the United States come to democratic socialism as part of their attempt to disentangle themselves from a religious faith that, implicitly or explicitly, celebrate U.S. capitalism. But the Religious Socialism Working Group holds fast to three principles. First, that Marx’s observation—which was, in full as follows: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”—acknowledges the powerful authenticity of the religious sentiment, and any socialism that strives to be truly democratic and inclusive cannot simply dismiss those sentiments without giving those who hold to them the opportunity to explore, evaluate, and identify with them in the context of communal and egalitarian ideals. Second, that democratic socialism is not Marxism; as influential as his work has been on the socialist tradition, the writings of religious socialists such as Leo Tolstoy, Dorothy Day, Eugene Debs, Keir Hardie, Mahatma Gandhi, Ernesto Cardenale or Martin Luther King, Jr., are just as or more important to the avenues that the DSA wishes to explore. Third and finally, religious faith is important to millions of people in the United States, and DSA must be open to the perspective of such believers.

Read, share, and contribute to the discussions taking place on the Religious Socialism website! Get involved in local organizations—religious or otherwise—that are engaged in the fight for justice, inclusion, equality, and community in your neighborhood, town, city, or state! And, most important, join the DSA! Write to religioussocialism@dsacommittees.org