No, am not advocating socialism now. What I want to talk about is the proper Christian perspective. I have seen all manner of hateful things said and done by Christians in the name of preventing unwanted changes to the U.S. government. “But Socialism” is the rallying cry. I have heard the Church Pastors warning about the advance of socialism. Should they be worried? Maybe, but it’s not a primary worry.
Nothing I have read in my Bible calls out capitalism as divinely ordained. In fact, the earliest Christian communities could be properly described as communist. They pooled their resources and drew from them as they needed. This worked pretty well until they began to grow and people began to carp about not getting their fair share. If we were all as Christ-like as we should want to be, socialism would be a rather good idea. But, alas, we aren’t, and it isn’t.
Additionally, most of the people talking up socialism or accusing the Democrats of favoring it don’t know what it is. Socialism is when the government owns the means of production and runs it for the benefit of the workers. That means there is only one employer. The government. Social Security isn’t socialism. Medicare isn’t socialism. Single payer health insurance isn’t socialism. Welfare isn’t socialism. No one in the Democratic party has advanced a single bill calling for the complete takeover of industry by the state. Heavily regulated capitalism is still capitalism. In fact, unregulated capitalism leads to oppression and wage slavery. Everyone that really thinks about it knows that capitalism requires some regulation. We are just arguing about how much. Too little leads to an oligarchy and too much leads to economic stagnation. Usually when people of the left say they like socialism, they just want some of other people’s money and when people of the right rail against socialism they are saying, “no you can’t have any more of my money.”
That Socialism is a bad idea for the governance of flawed people is not my main point. People use other excuses for their bad behavior too. “But abortion” and “but gay marriage” are equally tired excuses. God gave us instruction on how to behave. Love God, love your neighbor, even love your enemies. He didn’t give us a set of quests to accomplish like, make abortion illegal, get rid of gay marriage laws, or make sure your economic system is capitalist, and then encourage us to accomplish this by any means necessary. We don’t need to save the world, God already did. Our job is to testify to the truth of the Gospel and invite people to join us.
In Mathew chapter 6, from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He says this:
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
It’s OK to be involved in politics. It’s OK to be concerned about the law and work towards making it more just. It’s not OK to put these things first and it’s certainly not OK to abandon the clear instructions of our Savior on how to act because we think our political goals are the most important things. They are not. They are secondary to seeking God’s Kingdom.
We don’t seek God’s Kingdom by ignoring his commandments. Seeking the Kingdom of God isn’t using the law to force God’s laws on others. Neither Jesus nor any of the Apostles tried to use the government to advance God’s Kingdom. They used the Scripture and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is news about the power of love. How God’s love transformed the world. Kingdom living is letting God’s love transform us and allowing that love to flow through us to those around us.
The Roman empire stood against the fledgling Christian religion. A little over 300 years after the Gospels were written, Christianity was its official religion. Christian love will ultimately win. God promised us that and demonstrated it.
Christianity is in decline in the world. This isn’t because the Gospel lost its power. It’s because people don’t trust its power anymore. They are too busy worrying about and working for second rate things. Trying to change the world with human plans and human effort. If the majority in this country want changes we don’t like, then we have failed to convince them and we might have to live with it for a while. That won’t make God’s Kingdom inaccessible. Seek first the Kingdom of God. Inhabit that Kingdom. Show the people around you what radical love looks like. That’s what changes the world.
