Top responses to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's inaugural address: 'Godless, rancid ideology'

Christian pastors and theologians: 'Charles Spurgeon versus Karl Marx'

Some Christian pastors and theologians weighed in on Mamdani's address, warning of history's lesson that communism does not end as its proponents promise.

"History's tragic experiments with communism show that collectivism is not 'warmth,' but a path that leads to totalitarianism and death," said Paul Chappell, senior pastor of Lancaster Baptist Church in Lancaster, California. "Liberty, responsibility, and Christian compassion are the pillars of a free and moral society."

Andrew T. Walker, who serves as associate dean in the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, criticized the majority of New Yorkers who elected Mamdani, suggesting they are undermining the many sacrifices made to keep socialism away from the levers of power in the U.S.

"America spent decades trying to protect the homeland from this godless, rancid ideology and New Yorkers voluntarily embraced it because 'vibes' replaced civic literacy, historical awareness, and basic intelligence. To their eternal shame and our embarrassment. Evil and stupid incarnate," Walker said.

Josh Howerton, senior pastor of the multi-campus Lakepointe Church in Dallas, Texas, noted that Christianity has been at odds with Marxism since its beginning, noting that Friedrich Engels reserved particular disdain for Charles Spurgeon, a prominent Reformed Baptist preacher of the time who railed against the philosophy when Karl Marx was promulgating it in London.

"Interestingly, Marx lived in Paris, Berlin, Cologne, Brussels, and London. All developed significant Communist movements, except one: London. Why? In part, because a significant pulpit was willing to confront it. Unleash the pulpits," Howerton said.

/ Charles Spurgeon vs Karl Marx /

As socialism (aka "collectivism") gains steam in our nation, here's a lesser-known story about Charles Spurgeon...

Karl Marx moved to London during the height of Spurgeon's ministry and his followers started advocating for "Democratic… https://t.co/RQP662chn2

— Josh Howerton (@howertonjosh) January 1, 2026

Howerton singled out a sermon Spurgeon delivered on Isaiah 66 in 1889, during which Spurgeon characterized "Democratic Socialism" as a false Gospel that deceitfully promises progress in its attempt to "set up a kingdom for Christ without the new birth or the pardon of sin."

"The latter-day gospel is not the gospel by which we were saved. To me it seems a tangle of ever-changing dreams," Spurgeon preached. "It is, by the confession of its inventors, the outcome of the period, the monstrous birth of a boasted 'progress,' the scum from the caldron of conceit. It has not been given by the infallible revelation of God: it does not pretend to have been. It is not divine: it has no inspired Scripture at its back."

Spurgeon went on to say that Marx's philosophy sees the Cross as an "enemy."