Some of the strangest experiences I’ve had on social media was finding myself arguing with other alleged Christians on the subject of whether or not Jesus was a socialist. Because Jesus once said we should render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s (meaning pay our taxes) and frequently preached about giving generously to the poor, my more liberal-minded Christian friends have interpreted those examples to mean Jesus was a socialist.
For the record, both points are undeniably true. Jesus said a lot of things that would lead one to believe the accumulation of material wealth wasn’t a healthy preoccupation. Jesus once told a rich man that he would only have to sacrifice all of his wealth if he wanted to follow Him, and the man couldn’t do it. However, would taking all of his wealth by using the force of government have made the rich man righteous? I don’t see how.
More importantly, do any those examples prove that Jesus was a socialist? No, of course not. Jesus was a strong advocate for charity, not the Roman Empire, which of course was not governed by any form of socialism. Ever.
Jesus preached about the human relationship between individuals and an individual’s relationship with their creator, not the role of government in society. He was about as apolitical as a person can get, and that was probably due to the fact Jesus was not just any ordinary human being. He was the Messiah promised to the people of Israel, and God incarnate.
But if socialism didn’t even exist as a political philosophy when Jesus was alive, how can we be certain that He wouldn’t have become a socialist, if socialism had been a thing back in His day? That seems easy enough to answer: socialism deprives the individual from choosing to generously offer charity to his or her fellow man from their own assets, of their own free will. There simply is no room for charity in a socialist society. The government confiscates wealth and redistributes it according to the wishes of the people in power.
America has traditionally been among the most generous nations on earth, if not the most generous of all by far. Whenever there has been a natural disaster or catastrophe no matter if at home or abroad, the American people have consistently been quick to respond with help from individuals, charitable organizations, and yes, our federal government.
Remember, God only asks us to give the first ten percent of our income as a tithe…so why isn’t that enough for our government? The answer to my rhetorical question is they don’t trust us to spend our own money wisely, and government can use their power to take our money away.
And so they do.
Excellent. I once had a Democratic, which at this point is another type of socialist, who said ” I am not a compassionate man, that’s why I want my government to be compassionate. I my opinion, he was saying that he did not want to spend his money, so the government should force everyone else to do the job. This leave aside the issue of how terrible socialist governments are at true compassion.