Left Leaning, Socialist Christians and God's Politics

After weeks of suffering the chastisement of friends, I'm thinking of one in particular here, I have decided that I should probably update the blog. Life has been very full lately with school, work and trying to find time to spend with family. It is quite the fun little flying circus act trying to juggle all of those things at once. We are no Monty Python but we do what we can.

First, let me say that this post has been in the works for some time. Recently I had my personal convictions challenged and have been going through a bit of a crisis of conscience. My primary basic beliefs were being challenged and I was left in a state of confusion and found myself having to think through, with much help, many issues I had previously thought were settled. It just goes to show you that the term semper reformundum can and does apply to all of life.

One thing I have been noticing in recent weeks with the impending elections is a consistent theme among those Christians who lean to the left politically: a general dissatisfaction with the church, all things "Christian", and your typical red-state, American evangelicals. It was from here that part of the challenge to my basic beliefs comes. I was struck with a peculiar question that I really had no answer for. It was basically this: "Why am I not a leftist/socialist in my view of economics and governmental policy?" I knew that I wasn't one and I knew that I had my reasons for not being one as well. I just had never connected the dots in my own head before.

Part of the reason why I posed this question to myself was because I did notice a problem that seems to be overlooked by and large by evangelicals in America: poverty and social justice. Poverty is a real problem in this country and around the world and the fact that some people weren't taking notice who were supposed to be taking notice, was an issue for me.

There are two really typical challenges that get raised by this group. One of those is that they see a vast disparity in income. Now, I have tipped my hand slightly here but for good reason. Do a little unbiased research and you can find that income disparity is not as great as they would have you believe, and in fact, the middle class continues to grow at a steady pace. That being said, they find issue with the fact that some people have much more money than a lot of other people. However, I don't see this as much of a problem because I believe 1) people do have a right to personal property and 2) there is nothing inherently wrong with being wealthy (I think that Scripture supports this idea as long as the wealth is being used appropriately).

The second challenge, then, comes from how the left/liberals view themselves as champions of the poor and down trodden. I think they get away with saying this because they are one of the only groups that are actually taking notice of certain social justice issues. However, I think the solution that the liberal proposes for this problem is completely incorrect. At base level the response of the left to societal issues is one thing, money. They see the ultimate solution as giving them enough money for education so that they in turn can make their own lives better, and in doing so overcome their desperate situations.

One vast error in this solution is that it overlooks the basic things believers should know about human nature. You don't have to be a believer to see that something is seriously wrong with people, and if our experience has shown us anything we can see that creating a welfare state does little more than enable certain people to keep living the way they are without changing or bettering themselves, which is what the liberals believe will happen if given enough money and education. However, in most situations this is not happening.

But our knowledge of why and how this takes place is not based on experience, but the very revelation of God about who we are as fallen human beings. If our basis for knowledge and consequent action were based solely on experience we would be nothing but pragmatists (which is what many believers are). But this cannot be the case because we know the reasons behind why things work the way they do. We know that there is a sovereign God who made the world and everything in it, and that He is the one who rules it by the Word of His power. We also know from Scripture that those who can work and do not do not deserve to eat, and by adding this little caveat to the discussion it answers a lot of questions about who and who should not receive help from the state.

Even though there are clearly problems in society, and in America in particular, socialism/liberalism comes to the wrong conclusions about what to do in order to fix those problems. Governmental planning and control in the marketplace does little more than destroy democracy.

Economist F. A. Hayek states,

"Democratic government has worked successfully where, and so long as, the functions of government were, by a widely accepted creed, restricted to fields where agreement among a majority could be achieved by free discussion; and it is the great merit of the liberal creed that it reduced the range of subjects on which agreement was necessary to one on which it was likely to exist in a society of free men. . . . planning leads to dictatorship because dictatorship is the most effective instrument of coercion and the enforcement of ideals and, as such, essential if central planning on a large scale is to be possible."

Basically what Hayek is saying is that a state controlled economy does little more than suppress true freedom and in turn destroys democracy.

Phew.....well let me close up this thing with a couple of final thoughts.

I think that it is important to remember while thinking about these issues that Scripture is sufficient in all matters of faith and practice, and it does more than just shed a little light on these issues. It should be our guide to why we believe what we believe about the nation-state and the role of believers within that nation-state.

HOWEVER, we have to remember that Jesus was not primarily concerned with changing the world through political means, and that he never aligned himself with a certain side in political matters. He knew, as we should know, that God was going to work to accomplish his will on earth primarily through the means of His own people, called according to His name, which He purchased with His very own blood.

It is true that Jesus was not a white, middle-class republican, but it is also true that Jesus was not a disenfranchised, gay hippie either. He was and is the God-man who came to inaugurate the Kingdom and was always about His father's business. As those who claim to be his followers shouldn't we also be about the same things? May God build His church and help us remember that our allegiance goes to Him alone. Not to a party, person, or cause but to the One, true, and living God.