Socialism isn't Christianity.(The Last Word)

On November 2, the American people overwhelmingly voted down the overtly anti-Christian far-left agenda adopted by the Democratic Party leadership. Now the Democrats have laid out a scheme to win back morality voters by subverting Christian doctrine with the claim that Jesus was a socialist.

"No one can read the New Testament of our Bible without recognizing that Jesus had a lot more to say about how we treat the poor than most of the issues that were talked about in this election," Senator Hillary Clinton told a Tufts University audience of 5,000 on November 10. The former First Lady told the Boston-area audience of religion: "I don't think you can win an election or even run a successful campaign if you don't acknowledge what is important to people."

The strategy is to paint fiscal conservatives as un-Christian because they oppose using the state as a modern-day Robin Hood. Michael Kinsley wrote on November 7 in a house editorial for the Los Angeles Times, "Democrats seem oblivious to their platform's moral potency: innocent children suffering because their families can't get health insurance; platoons of young men and women dying in a war that didn't have to be; the pillaging of God's green Earth."

The Democrats overtly advocate a socialist agenda, which lives on today under new names, such as universal health care, the social safety net, and development assistance. And the theme is that leftists who advocate socialist government policies are generous, and those who refuse to redistribute the wealth are opposing Christian principles.

But the welfare state does not operate by the principle of moral generosity; it relies on a legalized form of theft (forcibly taking from some to give to others) and is driven by greed and envy. The welfare state breeds greed by offering wealth without work and generates envy by promoting class warfare.

The Christian principle of special consideration for the poor is a clarion call for the individual, not for the state. Jesus did not have the Good Samaritan in Luke's Gospel tell the injured man in the road to seek a government social worker. The Good Samaritan gave of what was his own willingly, not under the duress of the state. The welfare state actually encourages a spiritual laziness by implying that helping the poor is the responsibility of the state rather than a responsibility of the individual.

Consider the example of a small community of a few people to sharpen the moral clarity of this issue. Four men are stranded on a deserted tropical island. Two work hard to gather more pineapples and coconuts than they need. A third is unable to work because he has a broken leg, and a fourth is too lazy to work. While the working men have a moral ...