From: Arlo J. Bensinger (ajb102@psu.edu)
Date: Sat Nov 06 2004 - 15:00:15 GMT
Keeping in mind this whole thread is about "christian" morality, how one
political party claims to "embrace it" and criticizes the other as being
"ammoral" (if not "immoral"). Such hypocracy... anyways...
> msh wrote:
>
> > Modern Socialism is a reaction to the obvious inequities . . .
>
> What's immoral about "inequities?"
>
If nothing, why did Jesus demand his disciples rid themselves of wealth, and
state repeatedly that no rich man shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Seems to
me he did not think "inequities" were a good thing.
Also, consider I Timothy 6:6-10,
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this
world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment,
let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation,
and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in
destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil which
while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows.
> >. . . caused by a
> > socio-economic system whose main premise seems to be: "It's perfectly ok
> > (moral) for one person to own everything."
>
> The main premise is "It's OK for a person to keep what he has rightfully
> earned in a free market."
>
Not according to christian morality it is not! Matthew 19:21 " Jesus said to
him, If you have a desire to be complete, go, get money for your property, and
give it to the poor, and you will have wealth in heaven: and come after me."
Repeated in Luke 18:22, " And Jesus, hearing it, said to him, One thing you
still have need of; get money for your goods, and give it away to the poor, and
you will have wealth in heaven; and come after me." Jesus HARDLY thought it was
"OK" for a person to keep what he has rightfully earning in a free market.
The point of this is to demonstrate the obvious. The "morality" the "right"
claims to have a lock on, is not christian morality, it is fear of gays, fear
of arabs, and fear of "promiscuous sex" (as Platt seems to be quite afraid of).
The bible is then used to support these "morals", while ignoring pretty much
every other "moral" handed down in the works and words of Jesus or the OT. In
short, christian morality has been reduced to "gays are bad, mmmmkay".
While the left does not make any such claim to "christian morality", it has been
accused of either ammorality or immorality, based on its rejection of a few
literal moral points in the bible, despite the fact that it adheres to several
greater moral concerns addressed by Jesus.
Anti-homosexuality is a moral, we are told, but napalming the streets of Iraqi
cities is perfectly just. Based on what I've read of the bible, I bet Jesus
would ask us to invite the homosexual over for dinner, and use peaceful
resolution through missionary and goodwill work to the "terrorist" problem.
But... if the "right" HAD christian morals, it probably wouldn't have sold arms
to Saddam to murder Iranians at the border, and then sold arms to Iranians to
kill Iraqies. Or trained guerrilla fighters to overthrow the legitimately
elected Chilean president Allende (whose sole crime was to hurt U.S. fruit and
copper interests by socializing these areas and turning them over to the poor).
Hmmm, come to think of it, if we were "as christian a nation" as we claim, we
likely would not have given pox-infected blankets to native tribes, committed
genocide against the natives of haiti, or.. goodness, our past is riddled with
examples of christian morality, is it not?!
At any rate, the right-wing propanda ministers and right-wing media herald the
"morality" of the right, which is nothing more than xenophobia propped up by
several biblical moralities. Meanwhile, the rest (noticabley "wealth" and
"peace", but much, much more) is conveniently ignored.
How very, very christian of us.
Arlo
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