Pleasure is. In fact, it’s always been. The very use of the term “opiate”, referring to a drug, clearly shows this.
Marx had a very short-sighted understanding of religion, for religion is not about pleasure, it’s not about being comfy, it’s about finding peace amidst tribulation, hope amidst despair, light amidst darkness… though from his standpoint (that is, from the standpoint of one calling to a dictatorship of one social class over another one, to be established through a violent conflict) it sort of makes sense: Christians would never have followed it. In fact, most followers of God would have considered it immoral to do so.
Christianity has never established that one must quietly accept that one’s basic rights be violated. Christ Himself, when slapped, did reply to the guard with words that left him spellbound, and when the guards went to arrest him in the temple, we ignore what he replied, but we know they came back and replied to their leaders: “We could not arrest him. No man has ever spoken like this man”. And even the powerful Roman prefect tried all he could to avoid putting Him to death. The Church has always condemned oppression, first of slaves, then of workers and of the poor, as sins so grave that “cry to God for vengeance” (notice the harsh word, vengeance). And back in the early days, we’ve seen Christians (from Peter and Paul through all the martyrs) do everything but be slaves of tyrants, all the while honoring legitimate authority.
In the long run, “wisdom is justified by its works” We know that of the two, one has lead to terrible dictatorships in which all basic freedoms have been repressed, and in which amazingly enough we find large sectors of the population defending such state of things. That one, then, proved to be a true opium of the masses
