Jesus was a socialist......blah blah blah

[OPC'n]

How would you explain this all to a low-educated tribal population that feels oppressed by a larger ethnic group and so grasps onto Commie heroes? I am writing a letter to a group of Christians.

I would gather all I could about China's communist revolution and their situation now and show how the communist's agenda isn't to help out people to grab power and wealth through propaganda.

 

[RamistThomist]

If I refuse to play along in the new socialist commonwealth, will I be shot? If you say no, then you can't enforce your socialism. If you say yes, well for crying out loud you are for shooting people! Jesus-style. It's like Jesus is Dirty Harry, "Go ahead, taxpayer. Make my day!"

 

[Alan D. Strange]

Trevor:

I would tell them that all the kingdoms of this world (and all its economic systems) are based on self-love and come to nothing. There is only one kingdom for which the King dies and who gives what He requires to all who are in it.

This is a kingdom in which we are called, like the King, to give, not to take. Lives are won for this kingdom not with swords loud clashing or roll of stirring drums, but when we lay down our arms and submit to Him who is the King of kings.

Then we seek to live in His kingdom in the righteousness which is ours and to which we are called, to live the true Kingdom Life, even in this fallen world, calling the world to the only hope that it has. And we are willing to lay down our lives for this King and this kingdom.

Communists and countless totalitarians hate all of this because they want political and military revolution, all of which leads to nothing but death and destruction. They seek to wipe out Christianity (Madame Mao said in the height of the Cultural Revolution, "Christianity will be wiped out in ten years." It flourishes in China), but "The church shall never perish!, Her dear Lord to defend, to guide, sustain, and cherish is with her to the end; though there be those that hate her, and false sons in her pale, against both foe and traitor she ever shall prevail" (Trinity Psalter Hymnal, forthcoming 2018).

Peace,
Alan

 

[Edward]

How would you explain this all to a low-educated tribal population that feels oppressed by a larger ethnic group and so grasps onto Commie heroes?

I'd start with 'One wrong doesn't justify another wrong. '

If they are truly victims of sin, start there, not with their sinful response. Put yourself with them, not against them.

 

[ThomasT]

Okay....

It is very fashionable now to claim that Jesus was a Socialist.

Can you give me an easy-to-read primer on why Jesus was not a Socialist and why Christianity does not condone communism. I want to translate it into the national language here because this error is spreading among the minorities here in this country.

Let me approach this from a different angle. We can all agree that God became a man to make our lives better, not worse. And yet socialism a) has produced virtually nothing but misery and b) has been rejected everywhere it's been tried, with the exception of Cuba, where it's beginning to unravel but still holds on, and North Korea, where the people are powerless to change the system.

It's the people of former socialist countries themselves that ended up rejecting socialism. And it's the people that socialism purports to help. The proof of any scheme is in the results, and the results of socialism are uniformly dismal. Capitalism, on the other hand, has raised billions out of poverty, or at least the worst forms of poverty, in just a few short decades. (Remind the people you're conversing with that capitalism in the developing world is relatively young and thus tends to be mixed with other elements, such as caste systems, aristocracies, feudal land-ownership, oppressive religion, etc, and that as a country's capitalist economy matures -- assuming it's allowed to mature -- these residual elements eventually fade away.)

So if Jesus wants to make our lives better, and he also wants us to be socialists instead of capitalists, then we'd have to conclude that he's a much better redeemer than he is an economist.

As for "socialism" in the NT, I think this is often misunderstood. Communalism, which is what some Christian groups practiced, works (to the extent that it does) precisely because it operates within a broader private-property/profit-making system. It's no different from the economics of the huge extended immigrant families in America that pool their money to buy a house. The family members own the house in common, but their purchase of the house in the first place was possible only because of the jobs and a thriving economy (which allowed their house to be built) a capitalist system offers.

But even communalism, which differs from socialism in that a) it isn't a state system and b) participation is voluntary, doesn't have a great record in terms of producing human material happiness. Israeli kibbutzes, the most well known examples of communalism in modern times, have almost all been privatized, with members now being paid according to output rather than need. The new kibbutzes, many of which are very successful, are more like large proprietary companies than communes...

 

[ThomasT]

I would gather all I could about China's communist revolution and their situation now and show how the communist's agenda isn't to help out people to grab power and wealth through propaganda.

I would also point out, speaking of China, that China's economic growth began only after China mostly privatized its agricultural and industrial sectors. This confuses people, because China still calls itself "socialist" or "communist," but any economist, even one from China, knows perfectly well that China's economic system is, and has been for many years, mostly capitalist, never mind that its political system remains authoritarian. China's use of the terms "socialist" and "communist" is purely propagandistic.