Well, I’ve seen him praised by strange “conservatives.”
Communism is great; for the ruling elite that is.
MSM will never ask Castro what he thinks of that.
BIG difference between Christian (agape) love and Marxist comradeship. Christian love follows from the commandment, “love others as you love yourself,” described by Jesus as the second most important commandment, following only the Great Shema (that God is One). Thus, Christian love affirms self love, and builds on that to command love of others. Marxist comradeship is in self-denial, and isn’t really love of other persons (as individuals) but love of the masses. Thus, individuals are expendable.
The Russian Orthodox Church could be more clear about this, but it never really embraced the enlightenment.
As for the Catholic Church, the Catholics under JPII used to be quite clear about this. But, under the current rather silly Pope, hasn’t a clue about anything. With regard to the Mainline Protestant denominations, the only things they are clear about are where they are in error.
Bottom line: Don’t blame Putin. It’s the pervasive corruption of the age we live in.
Communists always forget this one important verse though:
2 Thessalonians 3:10
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
He is right, there are a lot of parallels between Christian living and a communist society. However, I think communism is a great example of what happens when you try to incorporate that kind of society without God.
...it just doesn’t work.
“Communist Ideas Echoing Bible’s but USSR Got Them Wrong”
There’s an old saying about Communism (or Socialism, same thing really) that the system is perfect it’t just never been properly implemented and if only different, better people were in charge....
They say Marx/Lenin got their ideas originally from the Bible, based on how in Acts 3 & 4 everyone had everything in common.
The main issue is this: in Acts, the sharing was totally voluntary and spontaneous, each giving on his/her own from the heart, with many giving all they had. This should continue today - to some extent. No one was forced, persuaded, or induced to give. The giving was an act of love from each individual’s hearts.
Communism ignores the origins and motives of unselfishness and sacrificial love of others (which only come from a transformed heart), and FORCES everyone to give all whether they want to or not. This is tyranny and evil, and is hated by all but those at the top who take more than others because they “deserve” it as the elite. The results are always disastrous. No one likes the fruit of their labor being taken away and given to others by force. NO ONE.
This is the simple reason communism never works, and never can or will work. It is totally against human nature.
I know many Christians today who indeed give sacrificially - out of a heart of love. If more of us did this, there would be less need for gov. poverty solutions. But note: Repubs, having a larger percentage of Christains than Dems, always outgive the Dems by about 10 to 1. The Dems are communists right now - taking from Peter to give to Paul. As Sowell so well puts it, “What part of what I worked hard for rightfully belongs to you?” “Why?”
Also, the spontaneous “having all things in common” in the early part of Acts didn’t last long, and was apparently never seen again. The early church, nor the writings/teachings of the apostle Paul never wrote that it was to be done, nor was it even suggested.
Giving out of love is charity. Having one’s possessions taken is always thievery, robbery, criminal - and wrong.
Based on our currrent system, we already not far from tyrannical communism, and today’s Dems would have been called communists in the early 60’s.
A critical missing ingredient with leftist formulations is individual free-will. All their systems are top-down, not bottoms-up.
I try to tell my liberal friends that one can not be charitable at the ballot box. One can’t spend other people’s money and take credit for “caring.” When you spend our own time or money (and ONLY your own time or money) to help people, that is caring.
Lots of liberals wont take that vital step. They think that “society” is supposed to help the poor. But “society” is just another word for “other people.” And, of course, the supposed help is coerced.
People can justify anything in their own minds.
See my tagline plus atheism.
That’s what Communism is.