Jesus Left and Right
Note: Our choices in the 2008 presidential election are no longer between Right and Left, but between Left and Far Left. Hence, I write not in Democrat/Republican terms, but about Socialists and Capitalists. One wishes John McCain would stop trying to be both.
If Jesus had been a socialist, He would have:
Ended poverty
Fed every child on earth
Given every one a free education
Made sure they got well-paying jobs
Distributed the earth’s bounty equally
Ended all wars
Disarmed every nation
Made locks on doors redundant
Made thievery undesirable
Reformed all criminals
Rendered policemen unnecessary
Ditto the Bill of Rights
Locked arms with the Dalai Lama & John Lennon
But instead, Jesus was a capitalist:
He invested Himself in mankind
Lived with our limitations
Embraced our weaknesses
Suffered our injustices
He planted a seed, His own body,
In the ground
Only to reap a very small harvest
In the form of a few spiritual sons
Whom He immediately reinvested
Now He rules
Even where His enemies appear strong
His kingdom grows slowly
Almost imperceptibly at times
And of the increase of His government
And peace
There shall be no end!
Given every one a free education
Made sure they got well-paying jobs
Distributed the earth’s bounty equally
Ended all wars
Disarmed every nation
Made locks on doors redundant
Made thievery undesirable
Reformed all criminals
Rendered policemen unnecessary
Ditto the Bill of Rights
Locked arms with the Dalai Lama & John Lennon
But instead, Jesus was a capitalist:
He invested Himself in mankind
Lived with our limitations
Embraced our weaknesses
Suffered our injustices
He planted a seed, His own body,
In the ground
Only to reap a very small harvest
In the form of a few spiritual sons
Whom He immediately reinvested
Now He rules
Even where His enemies appear strong
His kingdom grows slowly
Almost imperceptibly at times
And of the increase of His government
And peace
There shall be no end!
posted by Jim @ 11:19 AM
15 comments
15 Comments:
I would suggest Jesus was neither. For one thing, neither socialism nor capitalism existed at His First Advent.
The incidents with the money changers suggest that He did not consider economic motivations so fundamental as either socialism or capitalism do.
Indeed, economic determinism in any form (which is the underpinning of both socialism/communism and mercantilism/capitalism) is modern; presents a false picture of humanity; and leads to totalitarianism when adopted as a sociopolitical norm.
None of which makes me like McCain much better, though I'll tolerate him given the evils available.
Me for the Apocalypse! ;-)
PGE
also, His Father prohibited usury. Capitalist economies depend on it. Pretty hard to get over that.
Actually PGE, charging interest was forbidden when lending to other believers, but permitted when lending to unbelievers. Moreover, in the parable of the minas in Luke 19, Jesus advocated gaining interest, at least by bank. How could the banker stay in business if he could pay interest but not charge it? The point: Interest is merely a form of profit gained from a service, namely giving someone the use of a sum of money. That's quite different from usury, which is the charging of excessive interest. The sin is in the excess.
Moreoever, the money changer scene has to do with merchandising in the temple, not economics. As for how fundamental Jesus saw economics, Luke 19 plainly shows that He likens our kingdom service to the investment of money. Capitalism is based on the idea of investment and reward.
As for Jesus (God) being neither a capitalist nor a socialist, take a look at Genesis 1. God capitalized Adam by placing him in a garden, with the command to make his little start-up grow. This is no play on words; it is a fundamental to how we are to fill up the earth with God's glory.
Generic capitalism is biblical capitalism. It is the growth of an economy by the wise and profitable use of capital.
While I agree with you that modern capitalism confuses a healthy profit motive with greed, I will not accede for a minute to the idea that there is some sort of moral equivalence between the two economic systems. I don't believe it's your intention to grant that, but your first comment's opening sentence will be read by some in that light.
You and I would agree, I hope, that civil government has absolutely no "business" interfering with an economy, other than maintaining an honest money system (just weights and measures) and the punishment of economic crime.
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Jesus was a Leaver in a world full of Takers.
...take it or leave it....
Awesome! I understand the positions of others too, but it sure makes you think!
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Jim - Thanks for your comment on my blog. Provocative post here...
It strikes me as a trick question. I.e., one could argue that Jesus was a capitalist, but with two distinctions from the way most people think of that term:
1) His capital is righteousness, not money, and
2) He is the ultimate reserve bank of it... the controller of the money supply, as it were
I think people get confused in attempting to apply a framework 'of the world' regarding how worldly goods and power are to be distributed against a Godly framework that trumps all of it -- pointing to a much larger 'economy' that isn't contained by our own.
Art,
Actually I'm using the term "capitalist" in the same way I use the term "socialist," i.e., as representative of a worldview. It is much broader than an economic term, and when used as such, it merely reveals underlying religious values.
Today's conservatives have bastardized the term, and as a result people only see it as an economic system that opposes socialism, but isn't necessarily any better. I don't believe in granting such moral equivalence. Socialism is quite demonic at its core, and if we trace capitalism to its roots, i.e., to its pure form, we find ourselves back in the Garden.
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Jim -
You'll get no moral equivalence arguments on this from me! (And shame on me if I implied them.) The drift of the current political season (not to mention most of Europe) notwithstanding, it has been shown decisively that mankind will pervert any shred of good (if misguided and immature) intentions that may lurk deep in the hearts of socialism's advocates. (I see socialism as a badly misplaced yearning for the equality we enjoy in Christ... but that's another story.)
I based my last comment in part on the thinking of Lesslie Newbigin who, though he didn't have the full benefit of history when he wrote it in 1986, said in his book "Foolishness to the Greeks" (p. 106):
In spite of the conflict between them, the two ideologies [capitalism and Marxism]... have this in common: they are both atheist. The one attempts without success to enforce atheism in the private as well as the public sector. The other permits belief in God as an option for private life but excludes it from any controlling role in public life.
He has other things to say on the subject that are well worth reading and that build on this foundation, as well as on the work of Michael Novak. I don't agree with all of them.
But as a former Ayn Randian objectivist and firm believer in the notion that economic freedom would set us all free in the larger sense (i.e., that it and not Christ was the key) I have, very gradually, and with much angst, come to see that capitalism untempered by Christian values -- and, sadly, that is de facto where we find ourselves today -- brings into the world its own set of devlish temptations.
Anyway, I have little doubt that we're on the same side on all of this, Jim, so I'll turn back to the congregation now. You can keep singing/preaching. ;-)
Art,
Newbegin's comments certainly apply to the current iteration of capitalism. In terms of the balance between the one and the many it is extremely concerned with individualism as opposed to collectivism, and it's no wonder the word "greed" is so often attached to it.
However, in a more generic sense I believe God gave the Garden to Adam and Eve as start-up capital, and commanded them to both preserve what they had and develop it, expanding His reflected glory to the ends of the earth.
We are asking people to write a
real paper letter to the John McCain Campaign in Arlington, Virginia.
Ask John McCain to selectt Mike Huckabee for Vice President.
We are hoping for one million paper letters.
Sharon
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