God, the Bible, and Socialism

There’s a story in the new Testament about a group of people that were so overthrown by the love of God that they soon became overthrown by a love for each other:

“Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.” ~ Acts 4:32-35

On the night of Jesus’ death, just before His arrest, He prayed for something similar – that we’d all be “one;” not everyone “on the same page,” but that we’d share the kind of oneness He shared with God, an impossible level of intimacy and interdependence. He could’ve prayed for anything – “God, make them get along,” or “make sure they all vote a certain way,” but He wanted something much deeper, something that smacks of a political ideology that doesn’t have a good track record in human history.

When I think of the word “socialism,” something akin to the story above is what comes to mind – an entire nation of people who are so overthrown by care for one another that we go to extremes to make sure that everyone has what they need, regardless of what we might need to sacrifice.

Of course, we’ll never get there. Nations have tried, and quickly devolve into people making sacrifices for the benefit of corrupt politicians.

But because I’m in love with the idea of America falling more deeply in love with itself, it bothers me when politicians push for legislation that seeks to help people, and some from my Christian camp cry out “Socialists!!!” firmly convinced that these campaigns will drive our country into a hopeless communist abyss.

Rest assured that it wasn’t socialism that brought about the demise of Russia, or Germany. It was, and will always be, political corruption. That’s not a commentary on whether or not socialism can destroy a country; we’ll never know because corruption was so strong in those administrations – it trumped everything else. To me it seems that whenever a government tries to marshall the benevolence of its people, things get evil, fast.

But, from my perspective, there are people in our country who are having a difficult time making things work. They struggle daily against political systems rigged to ensure that nothing changes. Because I live close to the inner city, the first group that comes to mind for me are non-white, single parents. They’re behind the curve, unable to get ahead.

If these people simply needed to get their act together, I’d argue that we don’t have a political problem.  Of course, if you’ve read any of my previous posts on this, I don’t think their plight is their fault. Sure, there are lazy, entitled people of all races in our country, but they’re the exceptions; we’ve got systems rigged in favor of white people at the expense of everyone else. As a Jesus-follower, I think those systems need to be dealt with, severly so.

That, for me, for example, is the Affordable Care Act. I don’t think it’s been managed well, and it’s full of flaws, but its chief aim is to make healthcare accessible to people who otherwise have none .  I know some of you think it’s a mindless agenda hell bent on sucking our country into a communist abyss, but I haven’t seen any supporting data (I’m open to it – share your thoughts below, I’ll engage).

I worry about people who don’t have enough money to visit a doctor when the need comes up. It makes me sad to think about a single mom who’s already struggling, unable to take her kid(s) to regular checkups. A system like that guarantees that those kids, lacking pre-emptive care, are more likely to develop complications.

When they do, mom takes them to the ER, and we all pay for it, because she can’t. We can bitch about Obamacare all we want, but, in addition to our need to address broken systems, people without healthcare are a huge burden on our economy. If nothing else, only a daft, irresponisble government would fail to respond to the $$$ issues that come up when so many don’t have health care.

In general, flawed as our political attempts to care for the poor might be, I think we need to keep making them, and I’ve come to believe that liberal politicians will do more work in this arena. That’s not to say that I think liberals are more righteous than conservatives. There’s evil on both sides of the hill to be sure.

You might say, “Wow, Mark, you’ve really drunk the Kool Aid.” And you’d be right, I have. The teachings of scripture, the words of Jesus, and the love of His church have overthrown my mind, and brought an impossible level of change to my life. Like every other Christian I’ve ever met, I vote my conscious, and it’s heavily influenced by my understanding of God and what seems to matter most.

If you’re unsure of what that is, or if you’re interested in what the Bible says about God’s values, I’ll leave you with a passage from the book of Matthew – a “final judgment” scene that illustrates very clearly what we’re all supposed to be up to.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ ~ Matthew 25: 31-46

Us Christians love to talk about “judgment day,” and how the sinners of this world will finally get theirs – gay people, abortion doctors, liberals, etc. This passage gives us a different picture of who the sinners are. I can’t say it doesn’t frighten me a bit.

I’m a hypocrite if all I do on behalf of the poor and marginalized is vote. Voting’s easy. It requires almost nothing of my time, resources, emotional energy, etc. The same goes for social media rants. If I’m a true Jesus follower, I’m not simply reading passages like this and saying, “Right on!” God’s values should ripple far beyond my political views.

While Jesus’ gospel might compel me to vote a certain way, that’s a tiny part of what a life overthrown by the love of God looks like.