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11.19.08

The Socialism Debate

A funny thing happened on our way to electing our next president. The awareness of government sponsored socialism was raised several notches. Many in the socialist camp view this as a rare opportunity to further their ideology while much discontent exists with the American status quo. Many in the capitalist camp ridiculously defend their ideology by stating flatly that socialism is un-American. So let me enter the debate and thereby ruin any hopes that I may run for public office. (This will undoubtedly save me a lot of trouble in the long run.)

Let me first state explicitly that ideology is not a bad word. Ideologues have taken a pretty bad wrap because so many of them lacked common sense and/or morals while pursuing their ideology. However, I do believe an ideological discussion is warranted and highly needed from time to time. The present time in our American experiment is just such a time.

I believe that our country is in dire need of a newly framed ideological message proceeding from Christianity and those that support it. It is my belief that this newly framed message must make a clear delineation of how socialism can actually work. My belief is that socialism can only work among Christ followers that have sold out and made Jesus the Lord of their lives. These Christ followers must have rid themselves of all selfishness and coveteousness. This is no small task. In fact, it is monumental. This approach is fraught with peril as almost all historical examples (the earliest church in Jerusalem being one) proved to be unsustainable. Anyone who has served in a church or para-church setting knows that it is a very tall order to maintain an environment where shared burdens can truly be shared happily without sin and division creeping into the group.

The counterpoint to my belief that the church is the only place where socialism has a chance of working is my belief that government sponsored socialism is absolutely, positively destined to fail. It will fail in a morass of overexpenditure resulting from a beauracracy which inevitably will end up having no personal, emotional connection with those for which they should serve. I do believe that capitalism is the best economic solution in a fallen, sin-cursed world. It is NOT the best solution, but we are not in an environment that is the best. Even with this being said, capitalism is extremely fragile and does require a moral foundation among its constituents that does not devolve into making every dollar its god. (Doesn’t that hit close to home?!) I believe that the questioning and unease that has begun to manifest itself in greater and greater abundance among the American populace flows from the fact that more and more Christ followers and non-Christ followers realize that the United States has lost its way with regard to a moral foundation. The outcry is great against the cheaters among us! (CEOs, governmental officials, tax evaders, sinecure holders, lobbyists, medicare manipulators, welfare manipulators, disability manipulators, etc.) Be careful to fully examine your own life before you lay blame to a cheater as you may also be one. The same crying out people have widely differing views as to what our moral foundation should be, and I believe that all Christ followers must be working hard to guide that foundation back to a foundation built upon Biblical principles.

Author: Joseph Wendel | Permalink | Daily Entries

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 10:08 pm and is filed under Daily Entries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

John 14:6

The Socialism Debate

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