Don't let the subject matter turn you off. I'm not here to preach to you by any means but I feel compelled to write about a man who is often skirted any kind of discussion when people bring up famous people in history who stood up for what they believed in and fought for the poor and destitute, this man being Jesus Christ.Too often anymore people see Jesus' name and connect it to radical, zealous, and often hypocritical "Christians" who exist in today's society and write him off as the ringleader for this kind of activity. Nothing could be further from the truth! Even if you don't consider yourself a follower of His, it's impossible not to recognize the good he did not only for society back in the Roman Empire but today.
You want to talk about socialism and activism? Jesus Christ preached all kinds of principles commonly held in high regard by liberals and leftists. He preached against judging other people and hypocrisy (Matthew 7). He encouraged his disciples and followers to give generously and to help out the poor (Luke 6: 20-21). Jesus even spoke out against the tyrannical religious authorities at the time who really were just going through the motions of being holy to gain respect and power from the people (abuse of power; Matthew 23: 1-5).
I always think of the one time when the rich man came up to Jesus and asked Him how exactly he could get to the kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 19: 18-26)
- He answered him, "Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." He asked him, "Which ones?" And Jesus replied, " 'You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother'; and 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"
- The young man said to him, "All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?"Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all you have and give to (the) poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
- When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.
- "When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, "Who then can be saved?"Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible."
I am a follower of Christ. I'm also a democratic socialist. I don't believe religion and politics should get in one another's way but this is an example where the baby is thrown out with the bathwater. Many people on both sides of the political spectrum jump with fear when they hear Jesus' name being used but we shouldn't. Whether you want to believe he is God or not, his teachings like the ones I mentioned before are universal.
If you're interested on reading more on the subject, this is an excellent article called "The Bible on the Poor; or Why God is a Liberal".
Posts
1 comments:
Hey man I am hearing what you are saying, but Christ was no commi. Christ taught moral and ethical conduct for all people, bond free, male female, young or old. \he did not agree with the hypocrisy of his time and he saught to rip it down, the socialist ideas he taught around caring for the poor was that those that saw themselves as blessed should have compassion and care for those that are disadvantaged, and not to be greedy. This means live a humble life and use your surplus to bless others. The message that we are still not getting from CHRIST is that we are not to be great accumilators. the causes of poverty are that those that have more than they need either feel they never have enough, they want it all for themselves, or just want to have power over others. If those that had lived modestly and used their surplus to care or create oppurtunities for the poor or disadvantaged then their needs would be met and bolth would be uplifted. The poor would not feel as if they needed to steel if they felt life was a bit more fair and that they were also living by a moral code. The problem has always been the double standard, the poor need to keep the rules and the rich can do what ever they want.
The socialist or even commi perspective is that those with surplus have there wealth taken and distributed to the poor and then rich are sick of others taking their money so they consider ways to keep what they have the rich and the poor bolth covet the rich mans wealth and they becoem less compasionate. When ever there is a select group that will hold the power ie government, there is a great risk that it will be miss managed and those now with the power will begin to abuse it. "we will assure that everyone is treated fairly" and then no=one grows because choice is taken from there hands. I could go on for a long time about this the matter of the fact is that people have to know true principals and govern themselves correctly. Government is always to disconnected to what needs to be done. It can be collectively organized and distributed, but freely given not taxed away from those that have
Post a Comment