Jesus never preached socialism
by Everett Piper · The Washington TimesOPINION:
Last week in this column, I wrote that Europe and the United States need a Christian revival, not a socialist revolution.
My argument was simple: Socialism is the problem, not the solution. The destruction we are seeing in the streets of France and here in America is caused by the socialist creed, not solved by it. Christianity is the solution.
You do not even need the Bible to make this point. History has shown that, in every case they have been applied, Karl Marx’s assumptions about class conflict, identity-based conflict and forced redistribution end badly. Just look at the 100 million dead at the hands of the socialist regimes of Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Josef Stalin and Fidel Castro.
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If you want life and liberty rather than death and servitude, socialism simply does not work. It has a much worse track record than a constitutional republic built on the Judeo-Christian ethics of Christ and his church.
To this argument, several readers immediately responded that I was guilty of presenting a false dichotomy in pitting socialism against Christianity. “Jesus, after all, was a socialist,” they argued.
Is this true? In a word, no, and those who argue that he was are either ignorant of the Bible or intentionally misrepresenting it.
The fact is that Jesus never taught or advocated collectivism, government largesse or state-enforced redistribution of wealth and private property.
Yes, Christ condemned worshipping money, “for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Yes, Jesus warned that it was “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.” Yes, he praised the widow for offering just a single “penny” because she was willing to give all she had to God.
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And yes, some first-century Christians sold their possessions to support their fellow believers. Still, none of this smacks of the worldview of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani any more than the Salvation Army’s Christmas bells and red buckets resemble the IRS.
Jesus never taught or advocated for government compulsion. Instead, he always focused on personal responsibility. Charity was the obligation of the individual, not the state. Christ never told his followers to vote for the government to give more money to the poor. He told his followers to do it themselves.
Lawrence W. Reed, president emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education, says it well: “Christians are commanded in Scripture to love, to pray, to be kind, [to give], to serve, to forgive, to be truthful, to worship the one God, to learn and grow in both spirit and character. All of those things are very personal. They require no politicians, police, bureaucrats, political parties, or programs.”
He continues: “Christianity is not about passing the buck to the government when it comes to relieving the plight of the poor. Caring for them, which means helping them overcome it, not paying them to stay poor or making them dependent upon the state, has been an essential fact in the life of a true Christian for 2,000 years. Christian charity, being voluntary and heartfelt, is utterly distinct from the compulsory, impersonal mandates of the state.”
Is Mr. Reed correct? Is this, indeed, what Scripture teaches? Well, here is just a smattering of what the Bible says on the matter.
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The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:7: “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
In his Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus calls the traveler “good” because he personally helped the stricken man at the roadside with his own time and money. Nothing in this story suggests that government was the solution to the other man’s needs.
Jesus adds in Matthew 26:11, “The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want.” The key words here are “you can help [when you want].” He did not say, “We’re going to make you help whether you like it or not.”
In Luke 12:13-15, Jesus is approached with a request for redistribution. “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me,” a man asks. Jesus replies, “Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?” Then he rebukes the petitioner for his envy. Does not sound very socialist, does it?
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Mr. Reed concludes: “Jesus clearly held that compassion is a wholesome value to possess, but I know of no passage in the New Testament that suggests it’s a value he’d impose by force or gunpoint — in other words, by socialist politics.”
No, Jesus was not a socialist. He taught us, not the government, to do the giving. Nothing in church history or teaching says we are to shirk our responsibility to help our neighbor by passing it on to the state.
• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host. He is the author of “Not a Day Care: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth” (Regnery). He can be reached at epiper@dreverettpiper.com.
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