Question from a Rightist

I will begin this post with a disclaimer: I am not interested in entrapping Marxists in a "Is Marxism woke or not?"-type discussion. As I understand the matter, much of the Infrared Circle's dealings with right-wingers has been nothing but this rhetoric deployed again and again by rights who, I glady concede, are morons. I do think a great deal of what I'll write can be misconstrued in that way, especially by a less-than-honest reader, but that isn't the intent.

Here is the question: what has happened to the criticism of religion? There is no doubt that Marx made the criticism of religion (n.b.: critique and not simple-minded polemical attack) the starting-point of his system. He says that the criticism of capital must, in the first place, proceed from the criticism of religion. So, it follows immediately that, for the Marxist, any well-founded opposition to capitalism must also be a well-founded opposition to religion. Here, I hope, is where Marxist-Leninists will agree with me: modern leftism has no clue what religion currently reigns. They are under the delusion that the ruling-classes somehow support and are supported by a Christianity indistinguishable from that of the XVIIIth and XIXth centuries. For instance, here in Spain the leftist will often talk about the Catholicism of a Franco or, even more demented, the Catholicism of the Habsburg and the Bourbon dynasties as if this mode of religion still exists at all. I presume most here are American, so let me take a more provocative example.

The Catholic bishops in the United States did not make an apologia for the current administration's deportation programme. In fact, it did the exact opposite. It came running to the defense of mass immigration, and thus the interests of a great many industries and stakeholders therein. This state of affairs baffles our contemporary leftist. Of course, it shouldn't. But it does. This dirty, evil, imperial and colonial religion - the religion of conquistadors, kings, queens, white supremacists and white supremacy of all shapes and sizes - cried crocodile tears exactly as they do. The bishops made no analogies to the expulsions of the Moriscos or suppression of Jews, still less about the conversion and subjugation of aboriginal peoples, or anything of the kind. What they did was take, in the colloquial sense of this term, a decidedly leftist rather than rightist position on the issue. It goes without saying this also baffles your average, low IQ rightist crusader-type.

This brings me to my question: what do Marxist-Leninists have to say about this state of affairs? If your movement is to work out, then there must be a criticism of religion. I hope we can all agree, again, the religion that reigns today is not the one which did a few centuries ago (even if it goes by the same name). How would you define today's religion and what criticism would be made of it?