Identity Politics, Opium of the People

Carl R. Trueman at First Things on a relevance of Marx today.

"Quoted in full [from A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right], the paragraph reads as follows:

'Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. 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.'

"It is clear from this that Marx has a somewhat more subtle approach to religion than is often attributed to him. In his view, religion may be false, but it is a function of something real. Religious people may be putting their faith in nonsense, but they do so because they are truly suffering. We might say that, while Marx has no sympathy for religion, he has deep sympathy for the poor people who put their trust in it."

See Marx, Capital, and Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Great Books of the Western World (first edition, 52 Vol., 1952) volume 50, (second edition, 60 Vol., 1990) volume 50.