In my first post of this series, I left my personal opinion rather vague. I’ve been married to a worship minister for a long time, and over the course of our ministry we’ve met many people with a difference of opinion on politics. We’ve always been able to converse respectfully, because both sides of the conversation loved Jesus more than politics.
That seems to be changing. Our younger generations seem to be more militant in their opinions. Political correctness calls for shaming anyone with opposing views. College campuses have become hotbeds of activism. But while the activism of years past was for liberty and freedom of speech, today’s activism calls for shutting down disagreement. Many churches tread gently to avoid giving offense.
I don’t think that’s healthy. If we want to preserve our freedom of speech, we have to use it. At the same time, I don’t think people with opposing points of view are somehow ‘evil’ or ‘bad.’ They have the same goal I do: they want to find a way to ‘Love Thy Neighbor.’ Our only disagreement is on how to do that.
Over a third of voters in the next national election will be under the age of 39. A majority of those young voters like the idea of socialism. That concerns me, because I remember history. Maybe you do, too. That’s why from here on out, my opinion is going to be pretty obvious. I think it’s time we tell our kids why we think socialism is a bad idea.
1. Socialism is completely linked to communism.
Socialism involves governmental ownership and control of the means of producing goods and distributing them. In plain English, that means the government gets to tell you what, when, where, why and how to produce and transport goods for sale. That includes everything from groceries to steel.
Communism is a system where goods are owned by everyone and available as needed, with its major hallmark of eliminating private property. Realistically, if individuals can’t own property, that means the government will. That makes communism simply one step away from socialism by definition.
By the way, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels considered communism and socialism to be one in cause and purpose in their Communist Manifesto, first published in 1848. That work has been a blueprint for many a socialist uprising, from the U.S.S.R. to Venezuela.
2. Social democracy is not socialism.
Sweden and other Nordic countries have been cited as ‘good’ examples of socialism, but they say they’re not. According to its prime minister, “Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy.” In other words, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and others employ free-market capitalism with few restrictions. That creates so much wealth that it allows for high taxes. Those taxes support a huge welfare state. The important thing to note is that when it comes to business, the government is strictly hands-off. That’s not socialism.
Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy.
Denmark is a market economy.
Danish PM Lars Lokke Rasmussen
(Update: the entire government of Finland recently resigned over the high cost of socialized medicine. Reuters reports that other Nordic countries are also struggling to finance their welfare states.)
3. Democratic socialism doesn’t protect minorities.
We love ‘democracy.’ It sounds so fair and equitable. But the problem with a strict democracy is that the rights of minorities are subject to the whims of the majority. If you can get 51% of the population to vote, say, that marriage is strictly between a man and a woman (California’s Prop. 8), then the rights of the 49% are overruled. Only in a republic with constitutional protections (like the U.S.A.) can those rights be restored by the court system. (And civil rights are important to both sides of the political aisle.)
In democratic socialism, democracy is even more dangerous, because it’s anti-capitalism combined with a revolution against the rich. If the majority decides that your personal property or business should belong to the state, you lose out. That is a dangerous road to go down. Just ask South Africa. It’s not classified as socialist, but it definitely has a ‘worker’s revolt’ element. The government is trying to take land away from the wealthy without paying for it.
That’s why America is not a strict democracy. When Ben Franklin left the Constitutional Convention in 1787, a woman outside the hall asked the question that everyone else was thinking. “Well, Doctor, what have we got?” He replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” The Electoral College, the Senate with two senators per state, the Bill of Rights, and the Separation of Powers were all put into our Constitution to prevent the tyranny of the majority.
4. Socialism eventually produces poverty.
As we mentioned, communism and socialism are connected. Friedrich Engels, who wrote The Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx, used the terms interchangeably.
Beyond communism, however, there are a number of other countries that claim the ‘socialist’ title which you should consider: Venezuela, the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma (Myanmar), Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia), and others. You will find their trail littered with the bodies of people killed either by their own governments or by the starvation that ensued from their governments’ policies. It’s not a “who’s-who” list of rich countries.
Socialism does not produce poverty for all, however. Instead of rich corporations, you get rich rulers. Party members in the former Soviet states shopped in special stores and received perks no one else could get. Even in the blackout of March 2019, the ruling class in Caracas, Venezuela had power and steak while everyone else starved in the dark.
5. Socialism doesn’t generally turn out well for Christians.
We’ll delve into this more later, but let’s just consider why that might be. People don’t like to work without a reward. For socialism to operate as planned, it has to force people to work and to give away what they make. It becomes a dictatorship. (By the way, Marx predicted that.) When it becomes a dictatorship, it inevitably tramples on Church teachings.
Of even greater importance, however, is the fact that socialism tends to promote atheism. That’s also not so great for Christian liberties.
6. The name ‘socialism’ is modern, but the idea isn’t.
Giving the state power over people’s private lives has been advocated as far back as Plato. His preferred government, the ‘Aristocracy,’ would have had the power to determine every child’s education, future career, and even choice of partner. But there are more modern models we should consider: The Christian church in the Book of Acts, the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, even the Spanish Missions in California. All of these reflected a more fully developed socialism than Plato. And more importantly for the church, all of these wore the mantle of Christianity.
Above all, the Biblical mandate to “love thy neighbor as thyself” needs to be well-informed. The younger generation wants equality and fairness, which are good goals. Some think socialism will accomplish it. But it would be an error to discount how socialism has played out in history. As the saying goes, it’s insane to repeat the same mistake and expect a different result (attributed to Narcotics Anonymous, 1981).
Header image credit: see here.
Links to the entire series can be found online in this index.
Recent Comments