I'm a Commie

Ok I so I’ve been told that I’m not being practical enough in my blog. That it’s too heady and I’m not going to make any change by talking about stuff like that. So I’m going to move to another issue.

In class the other day we were discussing Marxism and how Marx got to his systems, things of that nature. It was brought up that Wal-Mart throws away a ton of food that spoils a day (can I use the actual name of a store?), and no one gets to eat it, while there are starving people in Marion. Then a student had the gall to say “Well they should have bought less then, because if you give it away people will never pay for it” and then others chimed in with witty metaphors like giving men fish instead of teaching them, and how bears won’t hunt if they are fed by people, and other such rubbish.

I finally snapped (and for that I’d like to apologize I did lose my cool a bit) and here is my response
“I don’t care what political or economic system you are wedded to, or whether you hate capitalism or communism, free market or socialism, the fact is people are dying all over the world. Maybe the church should buy the oranges and give them away, maybe something else, I don’t know how exactly it needs to be fixed, but we can’t sit around and say ‘well they are lazy so they don’t get food’ or whatever. That’s crap. If we have come to the point in the church that we let ourselves get caught up in politics so much that we can’t help people, we’re sad. Marx needed to slap us in the face and say, there are people who are sick and dying and are that way because of rich, fat, and happy Christians. Christ didn’t tell us to rehab people, or to train them, or to help them hunt.” (side note, I do think as a whole we should help change people and not just give them food, yet that’s not the point) “If you can show me Biblically or from the early church that we should do something like that then fine, but they didn’t have a system set up. I don’t completely know how to fix it, all that I know is Christ told me to feed them and clothe them and to the best of my ability I’m going to do it.”

Does this mean I’m voting Democrat next election? No! Does it mean I’m a communist? No. (Although I do think in a Christian society where all people are Christians a form of this would work best) All I’m saying is we are commanded by Christ to do something, and I’m not sure the Greed of Capitalism is helping us do that. There I’ve said it. Capitalism is based on others and my own greed. And I’ve fallen in the trap as much as other people.
One pastor once told his congregation that if all of them were on welfare (this was a fairly well to do church) and they each tithed their 10% then the church would be able to do all of their ministries (including food pantries and clothing centers) better and with more money. Meaning no one was sharing with the others. We’re greedy person, that’s really what it comes down to.