Jesus was a Socialist

Something I have been thinking about often recently is the morality of capitalism. While I make no claims about my own religious beliefs, I find it strange that the conservative standard of free economy seems to be in direct contradiction with Jesus' teachings, when most conservatives claim to be Christians. I asked Google, and it turns out there's a whole movement that believes Jesus was in fact a socialist. They're called Red-Letter Christians in reference to the common use of red text to indicate the words of Jesus Christ.

Let's look at some biblical examples of Jesus' social policies...

Jesus tells us that simple charity is not good enough- we must give our all. "Just then he looked up and saw the rich people dropping offerings in the collection plate. Then he saw a poor widow put in two pennies. He said, "The plain truth is that this widow has given by far the largest offering today. All these others made offerings that they'll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn't afford—she gave her all!" (Luke 21:1, The Message).

I recently had a discussion with a conservative-minded person who felt that their quarterly charitable donations were good enough for the less fortunate, but she was unwilling to risk her retirement savings in the name of better health care for all Americans. Charity is great, and benefits many people who are living in poverty, but it does not solve the ultimate problem- many hard working Americans do not have enough to live on, while the ever-shrinking upper class has more than they could ever hope to spend. Jesus thinks we should all give our all, no matter what it is.

Another instance in which Jesus professed that we should give all we have occurred when He was asked what a man must do to gain eternal life. "'If you want to give it all you've got,' Jesus replied, 'go sell your possessions; give everything to the poor. All your wealth will then be in heaven. Then come follow me'" Matthew 19:21, The Message). The man left, disappointed at the thought of all he would have to part with, and Jesus said "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the rich to enter God's kingdom? Let me tell you, it's easier to gallop a camel through a needle's eye than for the rich to enter God's kingdom" (Matthew 19:23-24, The Message).

Jesus has us pray to "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Matthew 6:12, NIV), and goes on to say "Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being" (Matthew 6:19-21, The Message). He says that money and other earthly goods come and go, so we should give freely of what we have and be able to expect others to do the same.

A literal example of Jesus' socialist tendencies would be found in Luke 9:10-17. The New King James translation states,

"When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing. Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, 'Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.' He replied, 'You give them something to eat.' They answered, 'We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.' (About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, 'Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.' The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over."

In this example, all of the food to be had was gathered up and divided. While it was surely a miracle, this event also exemplifies the socialist standard that when everyone gives what they have, there will be plenty. He did not tell those who did not have anything to fend for themselves, as we are so often expected to do in a capitalist society.

In a more figurative sense, Jesus shared the Parable of the Last Judgment. Matthew 25:34-36 says, "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why:

I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.'" (The Message)

Jesus then goes on to say that those on His left, the wretched goats that they had neglected to do those things (Matthew 25:41-43, The Message). When they claim no remembrance of those events, Jesus says "He will answer them, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me'" (Matthew 25:45, The Message).

Jesus tells his followers over and over to give freely of all they have and to do good works for those in need, but America has not been doing that. Claiming to hold Christian values has done nothing for this nation because we do not live them. If any American would profess Christianity as their faith, they should live these values and, to put it simply, "If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself...'" (James 2:8, New King James).

Further reading:
The first hit from my Google search "Jesus was a Socialist"
Biblical Basis for Liberal Politics
Red-Letter Christian Wiki

And that's all I have to say about that.

Busy Busy Busy!

I am sad to report that school did not work out for me this semester. I'm also a little relieved. I want to help people, but I also have a need to be creative and spend time alone, which just doesn't happen as a nurse.

So I'm trying to figure out what I should do. I've been job searching, taking career aptitude tests, thinking, pondering, worrying, and I still don't know what to do. I wish "freelance philosopher" were a job.