Quick Post After Long Absence

This is what has been going on in my life: 1) one of my dogs had an operation for a torn ligament and it got badly infected. As a result she didn't walk at all for 3 weeks and she's 103 pounds. Needless to say, as a total mama's girl, I had to be at her side all the time, which meant I had no chance to go to my computer. However, my computer gave up the ghost, which I might have mentioned in a previous post and I have a spanking new laptop, which is the only good news that I have.

My dog's leg problem led in turn to a cold or the flu, probably as a result of me falling with her down the four stairs to the outside of the house at 3 in the morning when it was 30 below, and no one to rescue her or me until the pain subsided enough for me to get my voice back.

Which in turn resulted in a return visit to the vet for her and a visit to the hospital for me with a badly sprained leg and bruised ribs and some sort of body whiplash from bracing myself (apparently) before I hit the ground. I never knew you could get whiplash-like symptoms from falling.

And eventually, possibly, as the result of lying in the snow in my bathrobe, my present cold or flu. I should go to the doctor but I think I'm far too sick for that, haha.

And in the meantime, at the same time, my horse barn flooded and the guy who did the trenching for me this fall was being an asshole (excuse the language, I was trying to think of a euphemism for asshole but there doesn't seem to be one) about it so I had to call Guy Number Two who discovered that an artesian well had been broken by Guy Number One.

Then my fridge went on the blink just before Christmas. Trenching Guy Number Two and the Fridge Repair Guy both showed up at the same time on the same day. Both got fixed and then the pressure pump inside the house went, which meant we had no water inside the house, drawing water as we do from an artesian well. And it is the holiday season, boo hoo hoo. Whose holiday do I spoil? I hate to bother people at times like these.

And last but not least, my brother wants a divorce from his wife. It is only a surprise in the sense that it has taken him a long time to work up to it. I won't go into details. I would appreciate prayers but in my opinion the marriage was a disaster from the start, ten years ago. Yes, God can work miracles but they are called miracles because they are rare. There are children involved and for that I am very, very sad but the marriage as it has been for so long, isn't sustainable. It would take a very big miracle along the level of the Red Sea parting to put Humpty together again, if I can mix my metaphors.

I don't know if I should be grateful the year is coming to an end or fear it. If I seem a little snippy and my humor a little black, it is because it is either laugh or cry.

I will make one comment vis a vis your post at this time, which is that you make a difference between a Christian living life as an individual and the state. However, you don't do that when it comes to issues like prayer in schools, or abortion or....?

In any event, I think capitalism is evil but will expound on that at some future date when I feel better. And yes, I do trust my government. I've noticed that Americans have a peculiar faith in their governments as evidenced by the fact that they so often refer to the US as the greatest country on earth, defender of free speech and all that democratic stuff, and yet at the same time are great believers that governments are not to be trusted in matters like gun control, health care, etc.

It seems contradictory to believe that one is living in the land of the free and home of the brave and at the same time say one does not trust one's government in terms of doing what is best for all citizens. It's like on the one hand Americans are proclaiming they live in the best country in the world, yet on the other hand they are prone to see black helicopters hovering over head, as though people run for elections in the US for primarily nefarious purposes, not altruistic ones.

See, I know there will always be a level of corruption in government, the same way I know there will always be poor people in the world. But I trust absolutely that my government wants what is best for all its citizens. It may not always be right but its aims are to provide good government and all that it means, including liberty and human rights, for all of its citizens, not just a few rich ones. The disagreements are mostly honest ones, as to how exactly one would achieve those goals.

PS. I think your definitions of communism and socialism got a little turned around. May I ask how you came by them?

Layla

Capitalism anti-Christian?

Good morning! To clear up the last bits of the Prop 8 mess, we were definitely confused, because I could have sworn that you thought that I thought that Prop 8 had failed and that thus the Christians here in Cali were being persecuted. As for the state and religion - let's face it, religion and government are always in each other's pockets. That's how life works. Because both seek to tell the person on the street what is permissiable and what is not. I could go off on a major tangent about this... :) But I won't.

Capitalism is decidedly Christian - at least if you define "capitalism" as "I work for what I earn, I keep whatever I earn to spend as I choose". (I don't think that wall street is Christian, I am certain that cut-throat business practice is not Christian). Socialism is NOT Christian. Groups of Christians, particularly the early Christians, did practice Christian Communism... very briefly, because human nature isn't set up for perfect communism. (Socialism is not Communism. Communism does not involve a government, it is the place of perfection where all share everything directly. Socialism is where you are forced to give what you earn to the government, which then distributes it).

Capitalism is part of the daily life of a Christian (or Jew). 1) It allows for the blessing of God to be shown to the world at large. This is how it worked in the OT, and what Jews still believe - godly people should expect to prosper financially. (Christians expect to be provided for by God directly and expect to go through worldly travail). 2) It allows for charity. Socialism removes charity from the hands of the individual. Both Jews and Christians are commanded to care for the widows and orphans and to give generously. 3) It allows for hard work. Again, human nature... socialism doesn't inspire individuals to work hard, unless negative sanctions are made directly. (We can certainly prove this!). If you know that you'll be provided for, regardless of what you do, you do very little. Paul commanded that if a man didn't work, he shouldn't eat!

Communism works very well in very small groups that are all committed to the same goal. It worked briefly in the early church. And then it failed. Most spectacularly in the case of Ananias and Saphira. I've always been taught that they didn't die because they held back part of the purchase price, but because they lied about it.

Everything that we own belongs to God. And we are to be stewards of that which He has given to us. We are to strive for its increase and we are to give generously to all who ask of us (individuals).

WWJD? Well... Jesus will give every human his vine and his figtree, that we are all given something to work WITH! No one will have the fruits of his labor stolen from him (war). Beast and moth and corruption won't steal either. And no orphan or widow will go hungry. Jesus' economy is a gift economy.

Now... socialism depends on the government. It depends on the honesty and efficiency of the government. And it's always been a BIG government thing. Do you trust your government? I don't!!!! Do I want my government giving money to huge corporations? NO! That's not good stewardship. They *in no way* fall under any of the guidelines of who might be found need of organized charity in the Bible. I rather think they fall under the "don't work, don't eat" set of guidelines!

So, in socialism, or in what the ranters and ravers are calling socialism, I am forced to give larger sums in taxes to my government so that they in turn can use it as they see fit. (In true socialism, I'd work for the government, they would take all the fruits of my labor, and I'd be paid whatever they felt like paying me, which I would then use to purchase whatever they felt like offering).

Christians are called to open-handed charity, but I see nowhere, OT or NT, where we are called to socialism. Small groups that take good care of each other, such as the Anabaptists, aren't socialist, they're communist, and praise God that they can make it work. I don't believe that communism is possible outside a small community that knows and works with one another. And socialism is a bird of a different color entirely.

I will try to be better about checking and posting...... all the best! :) Hearth

What Would Jesus Do?

I've been thinking about this more since the current financial crisis and the subsequent references by some to the bailout of Wall Street being "socialism."

And I've been thinking about it in relation to Obama being called a "socialist" because he talked about redistributing the wealth.

And I've been thinking about the many Christians who associate socialism with something bad.

And the popularity a few years ago with WWJD pins.

Do people think God is a capitalist? Or that Jesus was a capitalist? Or that the early Church was capitalist?

I can think of few things that one can say for sure that God, Jesus and the early Church were not, and that was capitalists.

We are told of the beliefs of the early Church and how they applied that to their day-to-day lives, presumably, with the idea that they were living a WWJD way, that they "held all things common."

Acts 4: 32: And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.

We also are told the theology that led to that belief, which was the whole idea of loving your neighbour as yourself. It is a belief which Anabaptist groups such as the Hutterites who live communally and take care of their own still hold.

The very definition of capitalism - an unmodified capitalism - is that selfishness is good and that if you don't succeed as the world defines success, you are "lazy." Much as Martha, for example in the NT, she of the Lazarus fame, viewed her sister Mary, who preferred to listen at Jesus' feet rather than to cook.

Capitalism does not love one's neighbour. It is in fact human selfishness, a worldly human selfishness.

Yet in all the world, there is no greater misunderstanding about socialism, "liberalism" and Marxism than in the United States. None of them equate communism and none of them speak against communism any more than the intrinsic selfishness of a capitalist system speaks against many kind and caring individuals in the US.

Given that the US is such a conservative nation, a nation so obsessed in a sense with matters of faith that politicians have to play to the Christians in order to win elections - it kind of boggles my mind that the US isn't a socialist country, a Good Samaritan country, a country that acts in a WWJD manner by not living for earthly treasure, but by sharing good fortune in a communal or socialist way as defined in Acts.

It really puzzles me why people are so against spreading the wealth, Jesus-style.