I recently began attending a new church, because my hubby was hired as its worship pastor. I’m excited about how this little church of 50+ is reaching out to its community. At Christmas, we asked the local schools for a list of 10 families in need. We sent them care packages. This Easter, we invited over 100 neighborhood kids to a bounce house celebration.
Loving our neighbor as ourselves is a hallmark of Christianity. Politicians also quote this verse as a reason to support socialism. In 1965, Bertell Ollman wrote a pamphlet for the People’s National Party (P.N.P.) of Jamaica. His work lists all the reasons why socialism is practical Christianity. That’s important because his arguments are still used to support socialism today.
Definitions
Wikipedia calls the P.N.P. of Jamaica a “social democrat” party, with a “democratic socialist” constitution. That in itself is a paradox. The two definitions are opposites.
Social Democracy: supports social justice within a capitalist economy.
Democratic Socialism: rejects capitalism; seeks to replace it with government ownership of the means of production.
Capitalism: includes private ownership and exchange of goods in a free market.
The means of production includes what capitalism calls ‘small business.’ I own one. Maybe someone you know does, too. But socialism often nationalizes those. This link takes you to a video about socialism. In the middle (2:45-3:15) is a short clip where Hugo Chavez of Venezuela asked, in Spanish “What’s this building?” When told it was a private business, he replied, “Expropiase” – take it. This happened repeatedly in Venezuela and other nations, where the government took over businesses to control the ‘means of production.’
Aren’t we all for democracy?
That illustrates why it’s so important to get informed about socialism. Don’t just listen to the names and think, “That must be okay, because it’s democratic. Aren’t we all for democracy?” Not all things that call themselves democratic actually lead to fairness. Just ask Thomas Paine.
During the American Revolution, Paine wrote a pamphlet that created popular support for the war. “Government,” he said, “even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” He found that out the hard way.
The French Revolution started shortly after America gained independence from Britain. The French people were fighting for the complete overthrow of their monarchy. Paine wrote several papers in support of their effort. He advocated a representative government with lots of social programs to relieve poverty. He nearly lost his head for his efforts. The First Republic of France, elected by the people, launched a Reign of Terror that was unbridled by constitutional rights. Long story short, be careful what you vote for!
Back to Jamaica
In 1962, Jamaica received its full independence from the United Kingdom, like Canada and Australia before it. Control of the island nation has gone back and forth between the P.N.P. and a more conservative party ever since. Bertell Ollman wrote his pamphlet back in the days when the P.N.P. was just getting started. He titled it, “Socialism is Practical Christianity.”
Why would Christianity be important to a political movement? The answer lies in Jamaica’s early history. The Caribbean island was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1494. It was ruled by Spain for over 150 years. For the Spanish, the Catholic church was their dominant social construct. The British, who ruled for the next 300 years, were mostly Protestant. Today, over 70% of the island’s population are Christians. In fact, it was British Christian abolitionists and Baptist missionaries who joined Jamaican former slaves in their revolt against slavery.
Love Thy Neighbor?
Culturally, then, a political appeal in Jamaica would have to come in Christian terms. Bertell Ollman made that happen. He began his pamphlet with 10 Bible verses from Matthew and Luke, with “Love Thy Neighbor” at the #2 spot. Then he continued.
“Jesus’ life, as well as his teachings, was a model of concern for his fellow human beings. Though poor in material things, he and his disciples shared what they had with all about them. For centuries afterwards, those who called themselves Christians were most noteworthy for the cooperative fellowship that characterized the community in which Jesus lived. For these men, Christianity was a matter of making over their lives to bring the greatest good to mankind.”
A trained Bible scholar could find the misconceptions hiding here. I’m not one of those. But I can point out a couple of concerns.
1. Calling the rest of humanity Jesus’ “fellow human beings” seems to deny his divinity. Christianity teaches that Jesus is God. (See the Nicene Creed.)
2. Jesus and his disciples were not a walking charity service, sharing “what they had with all about them.” Jesus shared the Good News (John 3:16). When the crowd’s hunger kept them from listening anymore, he multiplied the loaves and fishes of a little boy’s lunch to feed them. Note: the lunch was given freely.
3. The early church in the book of Acts did practice a cooperative fellowship. More on that in part 5 of this series.
4. Christianity has never been about “making over their lives to bring the greatest good to mankind.” Personally, our lives are being “made over” to conform to the image of Christ. The chief end of man, says the catechism, is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And the thing that God is about – what brings him most glory – is to save mankind. By the way, that will bring the greatest good to mankind.
Bringing the Greatest Good, Socialism-Style
According to Bertell Ollman, however, the greatest good for mankind has more to do with worldly measures than spiritual ones. After a section that denounced capitalism, he extolled the virtues of socialism as its exact opposite.
“In socialism, every man carries an equal burden of work and shares equally in the good things that society has to offer. There is no poverty, because all the idle land and machines have been put to use to produce the things people want. Production is aimed at satisfying the needs of the masses rather than the profit interest of a few. There is no unemployment, because a plan has been created to put everyone to work…”
And here we see the basic teaching of socialism which Karl Marx wrote: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” In his plan, the full development of socialism would bring about communism, which would mean an abundance of goods and services for all. Historically, it didn’t turn out that way, as we’ll see in future posts.
Note: For more information: be sure to download the free pdf report: “Top 3 Verses Quoted by Socialists and How to Answer.” Just click the links in the pop-up box. If the pop-up fails to appear, please email novelista@thenovelhistorian.com and I’ll be sure you get the report.
Header image credit: PNP emblem: DrRandomFactor on Wikimedia Commons, CC by SA 4.0. Graphic c. 2019 by thenovelhistorian.com
Links to the entire series can be found online in this index.
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