[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Mail]  [Sign-in]  [Setup]  [Help]  [Register] 

Utopian Visionaries Who Won’t Leave People Alone

No - no - no Ain'T going To get away with iT

Pete Buttplug's Butt Plugger Trying to Turn Kids into Faggots

Mark Levin: I'm sick and tired of these attacks

Questioning the Big Bang

James Webb Data Contradicts the Big Bang

Pssst! Don't tell the creationists, but scientists don't have a clue how life began

A fine romance: how humans and chimps just couldn't let go

Early humans had sex with chimps

O’Keefe dons bulletproof vest to extract undercover journalist from NGO camp.

Biblical Contradictions (Alleged)

Catholic Church Praising Lucifer

Raising the Knife

One Of The HARDEST Videos I Had To Make..

Houthi rebels' attack severely damages a Belize-flagged ship in key strait leading to the Red Sea (British Ship)

Chinese Illegal Alien. I'm here for the moneuy

Red Tides Plague Gulf Beaches

Tucker Carlson calls out Nikki Haley, Ben Shapiro, and every other person calling for war:

{Are there 7 Deadly Sins?} I’ve heard people refer to the “7 Deadly Sins,” but I haven’t been able to find that sort of list in Scripture.

Abomination of Desolation | THEORY, BIBLE STUDY

Bible Help

Libertysflame Database Updated

Crush EVERYONE with the Alien Gambit!

Vladimir Putin tells Tucker Carlson US should stop arming Ukraine to end war

Putin hints Moscow and Washington in back-channel talks in revealing Tucker Carlson interview

Trump accuses Fulton County DA Fani Willis of lying in court response to Roman's motion

Mandatory anti-white racism at Disney.

Iceland Volcano Erupts For Third Time In 2 Months, State Of Emergency Declared

Tucker Carlson Interview with Vladamir Putin

How will Ar Mageddon / WW III End?

What on EARTH is going on in Acts 16:11? New Discovery!

2023 Hottest in over 120 Million Years

2024 and beyond in prophecy

Questions

This Speech Just Broke the Internet

This AMAZING Math Formula Will Teach You About God!

The GOSPEL of the ALIENS | Fallen Angels | Giants | Anunnaki

The IMAGE of the BEAST Revealed (REV 13) - WARNING: Not for Everyone

WEF Calls for AI to Replace Voters: ‘Why Do We Need Elections?’

The OCCULT Burger king EXPOSED

PANERA BREAD Antichrist message EXPOSED

The OCCULT Cheesecake Factory EXPOSED

Satanist And Witches Encounter The Cross

History and Beliefs of the Waldensians

Rome’s Persecution of the Bible

Evolutionists, You’ve Been Caught Lying About Fossils

Raw Streets of NYC Migrant Crisis that they don't show on Tv

Meet DarkBERT - AI Model Trained On DARK WEB

[NEW!] Jaw-dropping 666 Discovery Utterly Proves the King James Bible is God's Preserved Word

ALERT!!! THE MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION WILL SOON BE POSTED HERE


Status: Not Logged In; Sign In

Opinions/Editorials
See other Opinions/Editorials Articles

Title: Was Jesus a Socialist?
Source: Lew Rockwell
URL Source: https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/07 ... ornoski/was-jesus-a-socialist/
Published: Jul 27, 2018
Author: David Gornoski
Post Date: 2018-07-27 09:46:20 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 528
Comments: 3

Was Jesus a socialist? Was he revolting against wealth and money itself? Or was he actually challenging people who use the violence of the state to prosper?

I have my own working framework for how to apply Jesus’s role model in politics and economics. Nevertheless, I recently spoke with fellow-travelers theologian David Bentley Hart (view our discussion here) and economist Jerry Bowyer (watch the interview here) to invite critical dialog for our society.

Dr. Hart and Bowyer share my interest in the late René Girard’s sweeping anthropological account for the origins of collective violence. Girard posits that humans ape their neighbors’ desires which leads to contagious rivalry and ultimately violent expulsion of misfits to restore social unity. In his account of history, Jesus’s performance of nonviolent unveiling of his collective murder created a counter-cultural virus which undermines the civic logic of might-makes-right wherever it spreads. Girard provides a Christocentric historical backdrop in which Hart, Bowyer, and I can assess how one should imitate Jesus in the context of the modern state’s collective violence.

As such, while Hart holds private property as rather baleful and Bowyer suggests markets are sacred human action, both largely agree with my applications of Jesus’s ethics to the state.

I argue that Jesus’s life story exemplifies his call to “not oppose the wicked man by force,” as Dr. Hart’s recently released translation of the New Testament renders Matthew 5:38. I believe that means, in part, if I want to imitate Jesus and I see my neighbor doing some wicked, nonviolent act—whether it is drug abuse, bigoted speech, discriminatory commerce, unfair wages, or resisting some economic regulation—I cannot use physical force to oppose them.

In following Jesus, it is unethical to enter my neighbor’s house with deadly force to force them to pay their employees better wages, use healthcare insurance plans I want funded, stop using a drug, or stop consensual sex work. These actions may be wicked but physical force will not correct the desires driving them. Neither will physical force abate the negative cultural effects of these behaviors.

Initiating force only creates more violence. Drug prohibition creates violent black markets. Prostitution laws prevent consenting adult workers from legal protection and forces them into the arms of gangs. Minimum wage laws only push greed underground as miserly employers harden their rapacity while entry level workers lose job opportunities. A person forced to bake a gay couple’s wedding cake through threat of fines and imprisonment only intensifies their stance while the patrons have no way of financially rewarding bakers that would serve the product without compulsion.

There are many evils to abhor but not all evil is physically violent. In the absence of violence, we must find creative, nonviolent solutions.

When we exert force to correct nonviolent wickedness, we make the perceived evil stronger and create destructive mirror coercion in society. Jesus understood this when he offered his life and teaching for us to imitate in making community.

We have a need for law in society. It should be an extension of the physical restraint we can use to stop a person from committing physical violence or fraud. If someone is dumping toxic waste onto a neighbor’s yard, the victim can use restraint to stop it. Likewise, the victim has a right to restitution for medical and property damages.

If I discover a person selling beachfront property in Nebraska to a senile man, I can use defensive action to disrupt the fraudulent contract. If I see someone being assaulted, I can physically restrain the attacker and put them in a space away from other potential victims. There is no place for excessive force, torture, or vengeance, but one can use defensive force to stop physical violence and theft from occurring. Therefore, what is ethical for us to do as persons can be extended by consent to society as law.

Ethics scale. If it is unethical for me to enter a person’s property with deadly force to stop nonviolent vice, it is still unethical if I get the majority of the neighbors to join me. If that crowd of neighbors snowballs into a mass of millions of voters hiring agents to do it for them, it is still against the demands of Jesus.

I cannot vote for the perpetuation of laws that disobey Jesus’s way. Nor can I obfuscate my moral responsibility for voting for violence by scapegoating the police or the state as alien arbiters of immoral laws. Neither can I hide in a jury decision and vote to send a human being into a prison where violence and PTSD terrorizes people for nonviolent acts.

While Hart disagrees with my views on property, he sympathizes with my view that imitating Jesus entails refusing to vote for unjust state coercion. We agree that Jesus’s model leaves no room for elective wars, sanctions, drug wars, or incarceration for nonviolent behaviors. He also shares the notion that jury nullification is something Jesus imitators would do well to employ against unjust laws.

It is encouraging to know that a theological leader like Hart understands the incompatibility of the imitation of Jesus and the state. Further dialog is needed to bridge the gap on the ethics of private property in the absence of a monopoly state.

Bowyer is helpful in noting that recent archaeological discoveries in Jesus’s Galilean region suggests a different economic picture than that of dire poverty. As a tekton or carpenter, Jesus would have been relatively middling in wealth. As an artisan, he was fluent with the poor while also comfortable in the company of the affluent.

Bowyer suggests Jesus’s admonition to the rich young ruler to sell all his possessions was in the context of his use of state coercion to expropriate the poor. Similarly, Jesus’s brother James’s warning to the rich men of Jerusalem in James 5 is dealing with those who unjustly profit from state cronyism. These passages provide no license for Jesus followers to abuse their personal and economic liberty, but they also provide no justification of force to correct profligacy.

Obviously, the economic and political implications of Jesus’s life go beyond the scope of this essay. In my discussions with Christian leaders like Hart and Bowyer, I hope to reframe and reinvigorate public discourse about the beautiful implications of Jesus for civic ethics.

Was Jesus a socialist? No. Not in a state-forced way. He was not a crony capitalist, either. He did not violently resist the state or market. If he had a choice to vote in a ballot booth or jury box, there is no evidence to suggest he would cast a stone with the crowd. Neither should we.

*****

David Gornoski [send him mail] lives in central Florida where he runs an agricultural start-up as well as public speaking and essays. His wife is a travel agent from Russia. They have a very interesting angle as international contrarian millennials with an interest in Christian nonviolence/voluntarism as a fresh path for liberty to advance. He freelances commentary for WND.com, Jerry Bowyer's AffluentInvestor.com, Discovery Institute as well as other publications.

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest

#1. To: Deckard (#0)

Of course he was. Organized religion,ALL organized religions are about "US",not "ME". Or at least that is what they advertise.

You also need to factor in the fact that times were much more difficult then,and people who shared genes or ideas needed to help each other more than today.

In the entire history of the world,the only nations that had to build walls to keep their own citizens from leaving were those with leftist governments.

sneakypete  posted on  2018-07-27   10:44:45 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: sneakypete (#1)

Of course he was.

Really? Have you never heard of, "Protestant work-ethic"? It's what America is based on.

Organized religion,ALL organized religions are about "US",not "ME".

Context?? Sharing resources out of necessity is not quite the same as having to share out of authoritarian coercion.

Jesus Christ condoned charity and helping those who cannot help themselves. He did not intend nor command the willful idle or covetously to be entitled to the labor and earned wealth of others.

There are many cases in the Bible of rich men. Job for one; King David for another; And there was Joseph of Arimathea, whose own tomb was given to Jesus Christ.

Here's a helpful link to verses of Biblical philosophy that might clear up your mistaken notion on the alleged "Socialist" philosophy of Jesus Christ and the matter of idleness and not working:

https://biblereasons.com/not-working/

Do not give the devil an opportunity. The one who steals must steal no longer; rather he must labor, doing good with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with the one who has need. ~ Ephesians 4:27-28

We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. ~ 2 Thessalonians 3:11-12

The Lord won’t cause the righteous to hunger, but he will reject what the wicked crave. Idle hands bring poverty, but hard-working hands lead to wealth. Whoever harvests during summer acts wisely, but the son who sleeps during harvest is disgraceful. ~ Proverbs 10:3-5

Liberator  posted on  2018-07-27   12:57:30 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: Liberator (#2)

Of course he was.

Really? Have you never heard of, "Protestant work-ethic"? It's what America is based on.

Jesus was a Protestant?

Who knew?

In the entire history of the world,the only nations that had to build walls to keep their own citizens from leaving were those with leftist governments.

sneakypete  posted on  2018-07-27   19:16:24 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest

[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Mail]  [Sign-in]  [Setup]  [Help]  [Register] 

Please report web page problems, questions and comments to webmaster@libertysflame.com