Christian Worldview on Socialism/Marxism vs Capitalism

The unfolding of political events over the past several years have certainly raised my awareness of government
and politics. We've gone from a devout self-proclaimed Chistian President to a man who claims to be a Christian,
but whose every political position says otherwise. Starting with his very first presidential action, reversing Bush's
refusal to send our tax dollars overseas for abortion, and then onward to socializing our country in the name of
Big Government, his policies scream anything but Christianity, right? My father-in-law, who has probably read the
bible more times than most pastors, said to me one day that a nation has an obligation to care for it's poor. So is
socialism/Marxism actually a Christian worldview? Eighty-five percent of Americans say they believe in God, yet
we voted for Obama, not McCain/Palin. Sarah Palin was soundly dismantled by the ultra liberal press, while
Obama was given a free pass on his alliances with America hating radicals. All of these event drove me to dig
deeper. I think you will find the following information interesting if not enlightening.

I first listened to a lecture by R.C. Sproul who has written over 60 books on Christianity, God, and the mind. In an
attempt to keep his thoughts true, forgive me for writing down his words here verbatim.

First of all he states that Marxism, while we do not want to admit it, has a concern for the poor.

He states it came about due to negative reaction in the 60's to American economic dominance in Europe.
Europe was ravaged after WWII. The battle of Britain basically destroyed England economically. The US
response was the Marshall Plan (the pouring of US $ into europe) and the open door policy of allowing large
corporations to come in to Europe and establish themselves. The idea was to help Europe rehabilitate itself.
Many Europeans grew to despise the "ugly american" due to their success and imperialist nature. The felt they
were defeated not by tanks and troops but by corporations. Many countries became established at this time as
'third world countries" due to their poverty. Yet, at the same time many of these nations were rich in natural
resources, and they controlled resources critical to the geo-political balance of power. The US wanted to help
these countries become established and to become self-sufficient trade units. However the Americans were also
profiting from these mineral deposits and led to an economic dependence and negativity toward the americans.
The people of these nations were feeling exploited.

At this time the Marxist ideology entered the scene, that called for a revolution against the exploitive capitalists.
Some leaders in the church saw the enemy as the international capitalists, and they wanted to see the liberation
of the masses from economic exploitation. They called for a new ethic. The church should put Christianity to
work using their social conscience and combine it with Marxist economic theories and create a new paradigm.
They hoped, through violent revolution to create a synthesis between Christianity and Marxism.

Sproul then considers whether Christianity is more closely associated with Capitalism. One of the basic premises
of Christianity is that it is bound up in the right to private property. Now R.C. makes a clear point that he agrees
with Marx that Capitalism can lead to abusive power because whover controls the tools controls the game.
Whoever owns the football can take it home at any time and end the game. The worker is at the mercy of the
owner. He has the tools which he purchased through surplus capital, and the key to surplus capital is profit, and
without profit there's no surplus capital and without surplus capital theres no ability to purchase tools and without
tools theres no productivity and when theres no productivity theres no product and without product theres no
wealth. And you can say well we're gonna get rid of capital and private property. But the tendency in human
history is that once you diminish the profits you diminish surplus capital, once you do that you diminish the ability
to buy tools, which diminishes the productivity, which leads o diminished wealth in the nation. An Egalitarian
would say that's ok, everyone is equal economically (poor).

He then goes on to say "I don't know how anybody with even a cursery reading of the bible can deny the fact
that the bible guarantees, protects, and sanctifies private property. You don't have to go any further than the ten
commandments, where there are prohibitions against stealing, and coveting. And there is such a thing as work
ethic in scripture that was not invented by the Puritans, Queen Victoria, or Adam Smith. It is throughout scripture
that people are called out to work and given the right and the responsibility to the fruit of their labor."

He goes on to talk about the abuses of capital and how the laws of Old Testament Israel were designed to
protect the purity of stewardship capitalism, stewardship economics and capitalism that is circumscribed and
ruled by laws reflecting justice. Capitalists can be as unjust as any revolutionary communist and can be every bit
as ruthless.
And any Christian must be concerned for the cries from the third world countries and must be concerned for
justice.

The conclusion in my mind is that Capitalism is more closely aligned with Christianity but only when we govern
ourselves with just, Christian based laws. Because of the fallen-nature of man, and Christianity's worldview that
we are all sinners, easily driven to excess, greed, manipulation, and power, we must govern ourselves with
biblical based rules, such as those provided to us by God himself in the Ten Commandments. Furthermore, we
must be taught to go far beyond the Law of the Commandments, we must learn morals and ethics from the
teaching of Jesus, such a compassion for the poor and widows. When Jesus was asked what is the greatest
commandment, he answered love you God and then your neighbor. If we would learn to love our neighbor, even
in a Capitalist society we would not seek to harm him to further our greed.

As it turns out, our Founding Fathers had it right all along.

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality
and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a
whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly
inadequate to the government of any other." [John Adams--October 11, 1798]

"Without Religion this World would be Something not fit to be mentioned in polite Company, I mean Hell." [John
Adams to Thomas Jefferson, April 19, 1817]

"Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthen...are a
departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion...no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any
religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer any religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to
profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion...
God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction
that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His
justice cannot sleep forever. [Thomas Jefferson, quote engrave IN STONE on the walls of the Jefferson
Memorial in Wash., DC.]

Even Ben Franklin, when faced with the Constitutional Conventions inability to agree, called them to prayer.

Unfortunately, in only the last 50 years, our country has decided to turn away from the Christian worldview. We
have chased God out of the schools, even though George Washington himself said the teachings of the bible are
more important than math and science.

“What students would learn in American schools above all is the religion of Jesus Christ.”
--George Washington in a speech to the Delaware Indian Chiefs May 12, 1779

"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and Bible."

We have created a Post-Christian society, just like England did. We have created a world of moral-relativism. "It
depend on the circumstances" is our favorite response to questions of ethics. We are, with ever increasing
velocity dismantling all traces of our Christian heritage. We idolize people, like Tiger Woods and Barack Obama,
and we're shocked to learn of their fallenness. We take the Ten Commandments off the courtroom walls, and
we're shocked when judges are found to be corrupt. We ban prayer from our schools and we're dismayed to find
kids bring guns and knives in with them.

Our new President even claimed we were not founded as a Judeo-Christian country. Really?