Let’s face it. The promise of socialism is appealing.

I went to a potluck at a friend’s house recently.  (If we don’t eat, we don’t meet, right?  At least it seems like it sometimes.)

Talk around the table soon turned to our modern political debate.  My dear sister in Christ isn’t a history geek like me.  Nor is she a news freak.  She hasn’t needed to know this before now.  So she leaned close and asked her question quietly.

“What is socialism, anyway?”

I whispered back the definition: government owning or controlling how we produce things.  I had just looked it up for this series of blog posts, after all.  But with socialism plastered all over the news these days, I had to wonder why our churches haven’t weighed in on the topic.

The Black Robed Regiment

Silent churches weren’t a problem in the days of the American Revolution.  The clergy were all over the war’s societal implications.  The British were pretty angry about it, too. The “Black Robed Regiment,” as they called them, inflamed and sustained the rebellion of the American colonies in a defiant act of treason.

From an American point of view, however, we have much to be thankful for.  Those ministers, who waged verbal war in their black Sunday robes, steeled the spines of our Revolutionary soldiers and citizens.  Ultimately, we won more than independence from Great Britain.  We won liberty. 

Modern American churches, meanwhile, can hardly imagine a preacher talking about politics.  It seems a law about tax status has done more to muzzle pastors in the last 50 years than all the brute force of the British army 250 years ago.  But a ban on political campaigning shouldn’t prevent churches from weighing in on social issues.  At the very least, churches should teach us to “stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.” (Galatians 5:1.)

Those early American ministers certainly felt that way.  John Adam’s grandson wrote, “The vast body of the ministry of the country advocated the Revolution, in public and private, on Christian principles.  … They believed that human rights and liberties would be gainers by its success.”  (Christian Life and Character …, Benjamin Morris, 1864, pg. 336.)

Today, will human rights and liberties gain by this shift toward socialism?  Will it help us fulfill the command to “Love thy neighbor as thyself?” (Matthew 22:39.)  As Christians, we should want to know.  Let’s get informed, because “it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”  Freedom slips away in silence, but truth sets us free.

That’s the purpose of this series: to educate Christians about what socialism is and how it has been practiced in history.  I invite you to join me, as each blog post explores another example. 

How to Use this Blog Series

A website, however, is limited by space and time.  A full discussion of each topic would take books, plural.  To compensate for giving you a quick summary, I’m attempting to cross-link every snippet.  If you want to know more, or find out if ‘they’ really said ‘that,’ please follow the links.  For more information, message me at novelista@thenovelhistorian.com . 

Meanwhile, I’ve been taking business classes to help my hubby’s small business.  One of the things they teach is to “unsell” your product.  In other words, let people know who it is for and who it isn’t.  That way they won’t be disappointed.  With that in mind, here’s my disclaimer.

Horse with "trigger warning" text

Disclaimer

This series of blog posts is written for Christians.  Its goal is to educate the Church.

  • If you are an atheist, it won’t make sense to you.
  • If you are devoted to political ideals, it may offend you.
  • If you are open to an honest discussion of history, this post is for you.
  • If you’ve heard about socialism in the news and are curious, this is for you.
  • If you want to spur a conversation with teens or twenty-somethings, this is for you.
  • If you need a trigger warning, this is it.  I will not tell you what you want to hear.  I will try to lay out a factual basis for my opinions, but I reserve the right to express opinion also.

If you’re still with me, let’s open a dialogue about how best to follow Jesus in our modern political climate. Let me know in the comments what you think. Have you heard anything about socialism at church?

(Header image credits: see here, here and here.)

Links to the entire series can be found online in this index.