Some of the comments made it apparent that some of my points were unclear. I’ve made some minor changes and a few additions in the hopes of making myself clear. – Funky]
I was wandering through the Book of Acts last night and a few things jumped out at me. I’ll be posting about them over the next few days or weeks. For now, I’ll limit myself to what appears to be an indictment of how most Christians live their lives, i.e. richly.
"And all who believed were together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved." – Acts 2:44-47
"Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common." – Acts 4:32
This certainly seems to advocate a communal lifestyle for Christians. Tying this into the Red vs. Blue craziness, I find it interesting that Red Christians get most of the moral teachings right but disregard the economic teachings, and the Blue Christians get the economic teachings while mostly ignoring the moral teachings. As a Purple Christian, I find this to be very frustrating.
I’ve heard more lame defenses of free market capitalism from Red Christians than I care to remember. I don’t buy it. Tell me why redistribution of wealth is wrong. Tell me why market forces are reason enough to pay off-shore workers peanuts. Tell me why consumerism isn’t unChristian. Tell me why there aren’t more fiery sermons against commercial Christmas.
I’m not just talking about all the sales and products being pushed, but the very giving of "wants" as gifts. Why isn’t more emphasis put of making charitable donations? volunteering time? giving heartfelt, homemade gifts? Being poor shouldn’t be the only reason your kids don’t get a new video game system. We all, young and old, have too many toys. How do they profit our souls? I’m trying very hard to make do with what I have and stop drooling over technological goodies I don’t have.
Recently, I have found myself increasingly convicted by this. I humbly ask of my readers – shouldn’t we all be? Please don’t think I’m giving moral imperatives lower priority. I’m just refusing to ignore social justice. I refuse to believe government doesn’t have a part to play in Christian charity. A lot of conservatives seem to disagree with me. Convince me.
On a related note, I’d like to point out the following:
WORD-FM (101.5) [Pittsburgh area] talk host Marty Minto will do several live broadcasts from area rescue missions next week with the goal of raising more than $30,000 for feeding the hungry and homeless on Thanksgiving. The programs will air from New Castle City Rescue Mission on Monday, Washington City Rescue Mission on Tuesday and Light of Life Rescue Mission on Wednesday.
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