Election Week Musings (2)

 

I’ve been amazed and saddened at how many folks bandy about the term “socialism,” using it as a canard for those with whom they disagree. I’ve had friends and acquaintances equate the term with Hitler and Venezuela (I’ll come back to this in another post) as they pass on fear to others – this is hardly thoughtful nor is it likely to produce constructive dialogue. What is socialism? Don’t we know that when we have regulations and Federal programs – including Federal bailouts of Wall Street – that we are seeing degrees of socialism?  What is unemployment insurance? Workers compensation insurance? Antitrust regulations? Consumer protection? The role of the FDA?

 

Do we not see the irony that many of us rail against socialism if we think it will help those economically below us, but have little to say if it benefits ourselves or those above us? If we are truly a capitalistic society, then if the small business owner is not to have financial protection, why give protection to mega-corporations? If an individual with a mortgage is not to receive financial protection, why provide protection to the lender? Why are institutional investors protected but not individual investors? What about the principle of risk?

 

And consider, the Scriptures teach us again and again that we are to care for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the alien – but we rationalize this away…and call ourselves Christians. Really?

 

God’s economic plan for the Church is in 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9. Hey, I didn’t write these chapters, the Holy Spirit through Paul wrote them. Are we living them? Do we even think about them? What do you think? What does your congregation think about them?

 

One of my points is that these things hardly lend themselves to sound bites, and that if we pass along sound bites then we are simply being used by others…not by Christ. Sounds bites are what I typically hear from a certain group of professing Christians. They cry the canard “socialism,” but when I ask what they mean they don’t really know, they haven’t thought it through. The Bible teaches us not only to be socially responsible, but also socially merciful.

 

Here is an excerpt from the letter to a young pastor that I quoted from in the previous post:

 

A Word About Economics:

 

I have long been troubled by our nation’s propensity to monetize life, and I’ve said on Sunday mornings that we ought to stop kidding ourselves and just put a dollar sign on the Cross so we’ll stop pretending. There is much I could write here, but I’ll keep it short, For Christians, if our attitudes about money and material things haven’t been crucified then we have a problem. As to economic systems, most systems are hybrids and are in the eye of the beholder – but for the disciple of Jesus Christ,  2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 present us with teaching on how we as congregations, Christians in regions, and Christians in nations ought to view money and possessions. This passage is typically manipulated by preachers to focus on individual attitudes and actions, but it goes beyond the individual to the local and regional Body of Christ – the Macedonians and the Greeks are helping their brethren in Galilee and Judea. The principle (2 Cor. 8:13 – 15) being “…by way of equality…”

 

How does this apply to suburban and inner – city churches? To affluent city churches and poverty – stricken areas in the same city?

 

To churches in prosperous regions and to those in regions like Appalachia?

 

To the Church in the U.S.A. and churches elsewhere in the world?

 

Perhaps 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 are the two most intentionally ignored chapters in Bible. Perhaps we are afraid of them.