Was Jesus A Socialist?

Fightin Words ^ | November 24, 2009 | Walter Scott Hudson

[Walter Scott Hudson]

There is a charge among some left-leaning professed Christians that conservative social policies neglect Christ's commission to minister to the poor. Does the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 imply Christians should petition their government to enforce "redistributive justice?" Jack Clark thinks so. We excerpt Clark's podcast, Blast the Right, and consider his "equivalent alternative solutions challenge;" it is fine to oppose government programs which provide for the poor, Clark says, but only if you can present an equivalent alternative solution which will help just as many people, in the just the same way, just as fast. Otherwise, by Clark's reading of Matthew 25, you are going to hell. Is he right? Was Jesus a socialist? Consider the arguments in this week's show.

[B-Chan]

You know very well that I was referring to ownership of the means of production, which is the hallmark of the capitalist. Obviously, our Lord had personal property (clothing, etc.); owning capital is an entirely different thing.

[Petronski]

You know very well that I was referring to ownership...

No, I did not.

One of the most important reasons for the rule against mind-reading on the RF is that none of us are any good at it...as you have demonstrated.

[Ditto]

Our Lord and Saint Joseph were craftsmen, not capitalists.

So did they get their tools and materials and workspace for free (as a wage laborer does) or did they have to pay for them, (capital) and then sell their products for some amount higher than the cost production and capital costs.

One can be a craftsman and a capitalist at the same time. I personally know dozens of them.

You seem to be operating under the assumption that capitalism and Godliness are somehow incompatible. And I personally know dozens of God-fearing very devout people who are also capitalists.

[Walter Scott Hudson]

Wow, thanks for citing 2 Corinthians 9:7. Kind of obliterates both the argument of Clark and the Catholic doctrine he relies upon, doesn’t it? Fantastic verse.

[Mack the knife]

Oh, joy! Let’s rewrite the Bible to support this, ... you know, bring the Bible up to the 21st Century.

We will replace ...

“Thou shall not steal”
with
“Thou shall not steal, unless by majority vote”.

Then we will replace the Parable of the Good Samaritan with one in which the Samaritan discovers the wounded man, but then:
gathers some friends with weapons
extorts money from travelers to pay for care, then
takes the wounded man to an Inn where he intimidates
the innkeeper to take only 40% of his normal fee, and
takes the rest of the money to finance the remainder of
his journey.