Plenty of people here have talked about potential success or failure, and the economic side, but here’s my take. Despite Marx equating religion to an opiate, and especially despite the “no religion” stance of the USSR, Christianity (probably the other Abrahamic religions as well and maybe Hinduism and its offshoots, I’m not exactly sure please correct me if I’m wrong) should be massively in favor of communism over capitalism. In Christianity, we are called to be stewards of creation for God, we run it and manage it but it’s not ours. This doesn’t work with capitalism, which is focused on the concept of ownership. That’s not to mention the equality side of things, which is very much a Christian concept.
I’ve brought this up with some of my Christian friends, and it’s unfortunately not a popular idea. Probably because of lingering cold war attitudes of “communism is atheist”.
Also to be clear: yes I’m Christian, no I’m not pro theocracy, yes this is based on my knowledge of the Bible and on communist philosophy.
Acts 4:32-35 makes it pretty clear that one of the most Christlike things early believers were doing was pretty communal, even if they didn’t have any Marx to read yet
Please go read the Bible lol Every single moral value that Jesus preaches is like a straight up pillar of socialist ideals. Feed the hungry, house the homeless, cloth the naked, etc etc. If you extrapolate these ideals to the rest of society…what do you get? Definitely not capitalism!
It’s not socialism either. It’s biblical law. Nothing more. Now, pay attention here, because he also said:
“Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God 's.”
This is clearly about taxes. And as we all know… taxes are a pretty popular socialist repellant.
And then there’s also this:
“Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God and those which exist are established by God”
Definitely not very socialist to subject people to the whim of big government.
I’ll digress.
We should keep in mind, this is all according to scripture- the words he spoke- which weren’t written until 20 years after he died (if it helps for perspective: try quoting a tv show you saw once, 20 years ago- and come back and tell me a what a single character said. Think you’ll have enough to fill several hundred pages? Now add two centuries of people from different walks of life, with different agendas- trying to decipher the quotes to mean what helps them win an argument).
Fro m where I see it, Jesus didn’t give fuck all about socialism. He just cared if people were following gods orders.
(Also not very socialist)
I get that you all think this is a great “gotcha” for your team, but anyone that knows better, doesn’t take it even remotely seriously- which come think of it, is probably why you all do.
And finally, I’ll leave you with this quote from Penn Jillette:
“It’s amazing to me how many people think that voting to have the government give poor people money is compassion. Helping poor and suffering people is compassion. Voting for our government to use guns to give money to help poor and suffering people is immoral self-righteous bullying laziness.”
People need to be fed, medicated, educated, clothed, and sheltered, and if we’re compassionate we’ll help them, but you get no moral credit for forcing other people to do what you think is right. There is great joy in helping people, but no joy in doing it at gunpoint.
Man I don’t even know where to start with this comment. I’m not sure when we say socialism we are even talking about the same thing first of all.
Second of all of course Jesus was not literally a socialist - that didnt exist when he was alive. But if you extrapolate the underlying vibe of the lessons Jesus taught they are ones of empathy and community.
It’s always y’all religious types that bastardize and twist your texts to match whatever flavor of mental illness you have. Respectfully Jesus would find you to be a charlatan lmao.
Or maybe when you make right wing chud arguments that are almost incoherent I assume you’re a right wing chud.
You’re out here larping as a bible thumper and think its a gotcha when people think that’s reflective of your world view. Brother I dont know who the fuck you are am I supposed to just assume everyone is out here making disingenuous devils advocate arguments all the time or something?
It is about that in the surface, sure. But when you look at the context, it’s one of many times the pharisees tried to get Jesus to either go against the Roman empire, so they could get him killed for it, or go against God, so they could exile him for it.
taxes are a pretty popular socialist repellant
Clearly one of us is misunderstanding socialist ideals, because I would say socialists tend to be the ones pushing the hardest for the highest taxes. Please explain why socialists, the community focused people who know no one can stand alone, would be against making sure everyone pitches in to help the poorest people.
[Jesus] just cared if people were following God’s orders
You should really actually give the gospels are serious read before making that kind of claim. Not saying you’ve never read any of the Bible, but I am saying that I don’t see a way to have genuinely read the gospels and come to the conclusion of “yeah, Jesus is all about the legalistic religion”.
Are you telling me that all or most people who get help from the government are lazy people who don’t want to work? The socialism policies are implemented to maintain people lives and sanity so they can try to improve their situations
Precisely. That was a choice they made, and now they got themselves stuck. Spirko (who I’ve talked about earlier in this thread) is always one to recommend a skill that can be so valuable, you don’t need debt to do it. Trades are a good way to do that, and it’s never too late to learn one, apply it, and do it professionally.
The money changing was Babylonian money magick, of which was the reason they were thrown out.
For a rich man to enter heaven, he needed to give up all material things, and instead, focus on building spiritual wealth. This was what the verse in reference meant.
As for communism meaning no work and only handouts, why do you think people are being oppressed? They allowed communism to fit in, and the whole point was to accept handouts for those who didn’t work.
the money changing was Babylonian money magick, of which was the reason they were thrown out
A. Where did you hear that it was Babylonian money? Babylon had fallen ~500 years earlier, so I doubt there’d be any of their money left in use. B. Jesus talks about the temple become “a den of robbers”. That doesn’t sound like the only issue was the choice of currency
the whole point was to accept handouts for those who didn’t work
Ignoring for now the fact that that’s far from the point, what’s so bad about “handouts”? Sure, if you refuse to work you shouldn’t expect to be given a mansion or something, but that’s not what anyone is seriously saying. The “handouts” that leftists talk about is stuff like food and basic housing. The idea is that your right to live is based on your value as a person, not your productivity as a worker.
While Babylon fell in 539, the traditions were still kept by the Medo-Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Roman Catholic Church. Babylon is still alive and well, just not the city anymore. The comment on the “den of robbers” has to do with money changing (the Babylonian money magick) being the robbing.
As for your comment on the handouts thing, I’d recommend reading Laws of Life: Ditch the System, Design Your Life by Jack Spirko. You’ll realize how wrong that is.
Plenty of people here have talked about potential success or failure, and the economic side, but here’s my take. Despite Marx equating religion to an opiate, and especially despite the “no religion” stance of the USSR, Christianity (probably the other Abrahamic religions as well and maybe Hinduism and its offshoots, I’m not exactly sure please correct me if I’m wrong) should be massively in favor of communism over capitalism. In Christianity, we are called to be stewards of creation for God, we run it and manage it but it’s not ours. This doesn’t work with capitalism, which is focused on the concept of ownership. That’s not to mention the equality side of things, which is very much a Christian concept.
I’ve brought this up with some of my Christian friends, and it’s unfortunately not a popular idea. Probably because of lingering cold war attitudes of “communism is atheist”.
Also to be clear: yes I’m Christian, no I’m not pro theocracy, yes this is based on my knowledge of the Bible and on communist philosophy.
Acts 4:32-35 makes it pretty clear that one of the most Christlike things early believers were doing was pretty communal, even if they didn’t have any Marx to read yet
Jesus Christ was a socialist. It’s literally his ideology if you just read the words he says.
No…. lol he wasn’t.
Please go read the Bible lol Every single moral value that Jesus preaches is like a straight up pillar of socialist ideals. Feed the hungry, house the homeless, cloth the naked, etc etc. If you extrapolate these ideals to the rest of society…what do you get? Definitely not capitalism!
It’s not socialism either. It’s biblical law. Nothing more. Now, pay attention here, because he also said:
“Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God 's.”
This is clearly about taxes. And as we all know… taxes are a pretty popular socialist repellant.
And then there’s also this:
“Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God and those which exist are established by God”
Definitely not very socialist to subject people to the whim of big government.
I’ll digress.
We should keep in mind, this is all according to scripture- the words he spoke- which weren’t written until 20 years after he died (if it helps for perspective: try quoting a tv show you saw once, 20 years ago- and come back and tell me a what a single character said. Think you’ll have enough to fill several hundred pages? Now add two centuries of people from different walks of life, with different agendas- trying to decipher the quotes to mean what helps them win an argument).
Fro m where I see it, Jesus didn’t give fuck all about socialism. He just cared if people were following gods orders.
(Also not very socialist)
I get that you all think this is a great “gotcha” for your team, but anyone that knows better, doesn’t take it even remotely seriously- which come think of it, is probably why you all do.
And finally, I’ll leave you with this quote from Penn Jillette:
“It’s amazing to me how many people think that voting to have the government give poor people money is compassion. Helping poor and suffering people is compassion. Voting for our government to use guns to give money to help poor and suffering people is immoral self-righteous bullying laziness.”
People need to be fed, medicated, educated, clothed, and sheltered, and if we’re compassionate we’ll help them, but you get no moral credit for forcing other people to do what you think is right. There is great joy in helping people, but no joy in doing it at gunpoint.
Man I don’t even know where to start with this comment. I’m not sure when we say socialism we are even talking about the same thing first of all.
Second of all of course Jesus was not literally a socialist - that didnt exist when he was alive. But if you extrapolate the underlying vibe of the lessons Jesus taught they are ones of empathy and community.
It’s always y’all religious types that bastardize and twist your texts to match whatever flavor of mental illness you have. Respectfully Jesus would find you to be a charlatan lmao.
I’m about as atheist as it gets. Maybe part of your problem is you assume everything, when you know nothing.
Or maybe when you make right wing chud arguments that are almost incoherent I assume you’re a right wing chud.
You’re out here larping as a bible thumper and think its a gotcha when people think that’s reflective of your world view. Brother I dont know who the fuck you are am I supposed to just assume everyone is out here making disingenuous devils advocate arguments all the time or something?
Yeah. Didn’t read past you’re little hissy fit of ad hominem yarf…
Blocking you now because- ahh who cares, I just don’t want to deal with you.
It is about that in the surface, sure. But when you look at the context, it’s one of many times the pharisees tried to get Jesus to either go against the Roman empire, so they could get him killed for it, or go against God, so they could exile him for it.
Clearly one of us is misunderstanding socialist ideals, because I would say socialists tend to be the ones pushing the hardest for the highest taxes. Please explain why socialists, the community focused people who know no one can stand alone, would be against making sure everyone pitches in to help the poorest people.
You should really actually give the gospels are serious read before making that kind of claim. Not saying you’ve never read any of the Bible, but I am saying that I don’t see a way to have genuinely read the gospels and come to the conclusion of “yeah, Jesus is all about the legalistic religion”.
He never advocated for such systems. In fact, He was for people doing the hard work, not receiving handouts.
Are you telling me that all or most people who get help from the government are lazy people who don’t want to work? The socialism policies are implemented to maintain people lives and sanity so they can try to improve their situations
Precisely. That was a choice they made, and now they got themselves stuck. Spirko (who I’ve talked about earlier in this thread) is always one to recommend a skill that can be so valuable, you don’t need debt to do it. Trades are a good way to do that, and it’s never too late to learn one, apply it, and do it professionally.
So why did he throw the money changers out of the temple then?
Why is it harder for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to pass through the wye of a needle?
And why do you think communism means no work and only handouts?
The money changing was Babylonian money magick, of which was the reason they were thrown out.
For a rich man to enter heaven, he needed to give up all material things, and instead, focus on building spiritual wealth. This was what the verse in reference meant.
As for communism meaning no work and only handouts, why do you think people are being oppressed? They allowed communism to fit in, and the whole point was to accept handouts for those who didn’t work.
A. Where did you hear that it was Babylonian money? Babylon had fallen ~500 years earlier, so I doubt there’d be any of their money left in use. B. Jesus talks about the temple become “a den of robbers”. That doesn’t sound like the only issue was the choice of currency
Ignoring for now the fact that that’s far from the point, what’s so bad about “handouts”? Sure, if you refuse to work you shouldn’t expect to be given a mansion or something, but that’s not what anyone is seriously saying. The “handouts” that leftists talk about is stuff like food and basic housing. The idea is that your right to live is based on your value as a person, not your productivity as a worker.
While Babylon fell in 539, the traditions were still kept by the Medo-Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Roman Catholic Church. Babylon is still alive and well, just not the city anymore. The comment on the “den of robbers” has to do with money changing (the Babylonian money magick) being the robbing.
As for your comment on the handouts thing, I’d recommend reading Laws of Life: Ditch the System, Design Your Life by Jack Spirko. You’ll realize how wrong that is.
Tell me you’ve never read the Bible without telling me.