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4 comments

[–] jidlaph 0 points (+0|-0)

I think the fundamental flaw with trying to use the New Testament church to justify socialism is that the New Testament does not at all address the subject of national...anything. The structure of government is unimportant. The economy is not relevant. It is only concerned with the operation of the church itself, and guidelines laid out there are extremely barebones and can mostly be summed up as "pick an upstanding person to look out for the widows and orphans". My takeaway is that the church should strongly resemble socialism, and that only works because it is driven by donation. It is a sort of opt-in socialism that a national command economy can't afford.

And drawing on the Old Testament to justify capitalism has its own flaws, such as with the Year of Jubilee. Every 49 years all debts were canceled, all slaves went free, and all property reverted to the family that had sold it (at least in theory; IIRC they only actually celebrated Jubilee once). It was a capitalist system, but one with some major fetters (like forbidding usury) that limited the more egregious abuses.

[–] smallpond 0 points (+0|-0)

Matthew 19:24

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

I've never understood how Christians get around this.