(6 minute, 30 second read unless you stop and think about things along the way.)
Since socialism has become such a war cry for Trump Republican Party (TRP) evangelicals I decided to redo and reformat something I wrote back in 2016, “Was Jesus a socialist, liberal or liberal socialist?” because it is still relevant.
Ahead of his time
Yes, I know that they didn’t have socialism in the time of Jesus. It’s a modern term that is being weaponized by the TRP supported by evangelicals. But the term does apply to the historical Jesus by today’s definition. Jesus will return as Jesus according to the bible. He won’t be a Rambo Jesus or a neo-Jesus. He’ll be regular Jesus.
I'm not getting my wife in trouble here. The church statute of limitations has surely expired on her offense since the church we attended where she committed said offense is now gone. Her now un-chargeable infraction was whispering in church while the pastor was giving his sermon. What, you might ask, did my chatty wife say? Well, she whispered in my ear, “Jesus was a socialist”. She said this right after the pastor read the following scriptures during his sermon, Acts 2:42-45, New American Standard (NAS) translation:
“They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.”
From later in the same sermon, Acts 4:32-37, NAS:
“And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need. Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement), and who owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.”
We have several extremely wealthy evangelicals that take this verse personally. I covered that in Jesus was biased.
Et tu Oswald
Then we have this from Oswald Chambers.[i]
“The institutional church’s idea of a servant of God is not at all like Jesus Christ’s idea. His idea is that we serve Him by being the servants of others.”
Jesus Christ actually “out-socialized” the socialists. He said that in His kingdom the greatest one would be the servant of all Matthew 23:11, NAS.
"But the greatest among you shall be your servant.”
It gets worse.
Class warfare!
Matthew 19:24 ESV:
“Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
Kind of makes it sound like being poor is an advantage. That won’t get you a 10% discount at Wal-Mart though.
Matthew 22:36-40 ESV:
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
OMG! There are no exclusions! What was the matter with these people? Seriously! Socialists loving on people without regard to race, creed, color, sexual orientation, body odor, you name it. I threw in body odor because these were pre-deodorant times.
Here we go again. More mouths to feed. Luke 18:16:
“But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.”
This doesn’t sound like cutting Medicaid or cutting back on welfare for the less fortunate. James 2:14-17, ESV:
“What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith, but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you tells him, “Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,” but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that? So too, faith by itself, if it is not complemented by action, is dead.”
Rift in the force
Okay, I’m calling a halt to all the scriptural references. It’s too easy to get a war of scriptures started because there are plenty of hateful and unloving scriptures in the bible to choose from too. People have the remarkable ability to justify inherently unchristian acts with scripture. In the service I had an officer defend his racism with scriptural references.
What seems undeniable to me is that Jesus was a bleeding-heart liberal leftist as well as a socialist, by the contemporary standards that righteous right conservatives have established. Hm, I think that I just felt a rift in the force. I’m starting to get a little redundant.
So, why are the religious right and Republicans so anti-liberal? Why do so many people who call themselves Christians, both liberal and conservative, post so many hateful comments about socialists, welfare recipients, immigrants, the poor, the homeless, homosexuals, those of other national origins, religions (and I’m going to stop here because the list goes on depending on one’s geographical, economic or social status)?
Somehow, I ended in a position of knowing and associating with far more people who identify themselves as conservatives than liberals. And though I keep using these two words along with left and right I find them practically meaningless in today’s political and social world.
People aren’t left enough for the left. Bernie Sanders is a socialist, but he wasn’t enough of a socialist for the socialists, so socialists backed the Green Party candidate when he ran for President. (I’m sure there are some rebel socialists that backed other candidates.) The nom de plume Compassionate Conservative has gone by the wayside with Constitutional Conservative moving towards the front of the pack. Moderate Conservatives are staging a comeback in some local uprisings. Others are just throwing in the towel.
I’m back to being Independent.
Here’s what I do know.
Something is really broken in this nation of multi-billionaires, multi-millionaires, regular billionaires, regular millionaires, mega churches, full grocery stores, mega malls and millions of Christians to have so many people going hungry day after day, unable to afford medicine and dying from lack of healthcare. We shouldn’t have enclaves of poverty and lawlessness scattered across the entire country. Should we really care what nationality or ethnicity a hungry child is before we feed them? Are we only pro-family and humanity if certain criteria are met?
It is unchristian to turn away those in poverty, be building walls, wanting to blow up (kill) innocents and sending those in need away because their paperwork is out of order. We’re supposed to minister to them. Seeing videos of children’s bodies along with their parents washing up on beaches doesn’t make me want to take a harder stance against immigration.
We shouldn’t ignore the central tenet of our faith.[ii]
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