[WT Sharpe]

A communist is not necessarily an atheist. As Sparrow pointed out, the early church indeed had a communistic structure. They held all things communally, which is all communism implies. Marxist Communism may be atheistic, but communism in itself is not necessarily so. In like manner, socialists may be atheistic or Christian. The best example that comes to mind of a Christian socialist is Francis Bellamy, who was both a Baptist minister and a Christian Socialist. Just because the Pledge of Allegiance he wrote contained no reference to God does not mean he wasn't a believer as well as a socialist. He may well have not included one because he didn't wish to exclude people who differed from him in religious matters or to make them feel like second-class citizens. Perhaps he took seriously the idea that government shouldn't entwine itself with religion.