i'm an atheistic communist that agrees with the pope pius that the term is incoherent.

to start with, that quote from matthew is really ironic, because marx' argument against christianity was always that it co-opted revolution by promising an afterlife. marx was very explicit: there can never be a real socialist revolution until workers discard the idea of an afterlife. this is not an isolated thread, either. it was picked up by bakunin and also by kropotkin. it was really the central tactical idea on the left: how to get workers to discard this idea of the afterlife that is preventing them from revolting.

these christian societies were never classless, either. they always had supreme leaders. they could never be described as leftist.

but the biggest problem with christian socialism is that socialism argues that morality is a consequence of the economy, itself a consequence of technology. this is the central philosophical idea in marxism: that the social order follows the economic order. so, it's literally impossible to be a christian and a socialist at the same time, as understanding socialism means undercutting the very basis of christianity as a religion: it didn't come from god, it came from the economy. and, it equally follows that it would be impossible for the future moral and social order to be christianity if this is true.

i know these people exist. but they've lost the plot somewhere. it really doesn't make any sense.