A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post in response to an article from a theologian who was criticizing capitalism and libertarianism for being unchristian. Well, he said that it wasn’t “compatible” with Christianity. But it was basically the same thing.
What annoys me about it is that most people with certain political affinities are always going to try and claim the cross as central to their ideology and all others are, effectively, going to Hell. This kind of limited thinking is destructive to Christians and only creates strife among the believers.
I made a point about how libertarianism’s “Non-Aggression Principle” is basically the second greatest commandment as taught by first Moses and reinforced by Jesus. This was not meant to illustrate that libertarianism is what Jesus taught. For one thing, I am not a libertarian, I am a political nihilist. And another point is that I believe that if everyone was a true believing Christian, then any political ideology would work out fine.
The latter point is really key. If men were angels, after all, then we would not need government really. It can be argued that we do not need government anyway, but that’s not the point here. The point is that while many people claim to be Christian (in the USA, it’s 82%), many refuse to follow the teachings of Jesus, other than the parts they like.
So we are stuck with people who believe that their political ideology is the one that Jesus would follow. This is more prevalent and explicit on the Left with many of their ilk claiming things like “Jesus was a liberal” and that Jesus charged use to help the poor. And while this is true, it is also true that the Left are the least charitable bunch you’ll ever meet.
Conservatives are bad about this as well, but they are more subtle about it. From implying that the Left are immoral, which they are, to outright calling them Godless, which again, many are, the Right tends to take the opposite approach and paint their rivals as anti-God. And while they are correct, most of the time, they are also doing so not to convert people to Christianity, but to convert people to conservatism.
The point is, Jesus was largely apolitical because He was the Son of God. Who the Hell cares about politics when the world is yours by right of inheritance? To top it off, He has the power and authority to rule, so any human construct designed to govern us is immaterial to Him.
Do keep that in mind when confronted with a moron declares the compatibility of Christianity with whatever political ideology they are extolling or criticizing. Because while some ideologies do openly reject Christianity, God doesn’t seem to care all that much about the ones that do not.