The Church and Socialism

I woke up this morning with a forwarded email from my mom in my inbox containing the following article:
http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/m_bruce/2009/11212009.htm

Later on, my wife and I went to church. The theme of the past few weeks has been "The Blessed Life," which has had a large focus on giving. As my pastor was discussing some of the aspects of giving, I began to think of some of the impacts of giving. I thought of James 1:27, which states, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." God expects us to take care of those that cannot take care of themselves, through giving of our money, our time, abilities, etc.

All of a sudden it hit me, we aren't in a downward spiral to socialism because of Obama or a corrupt government; we're in this situation because the church has stepped down. We've failed to take a proactive stance in taking care of people. On top of that, we've failed to share Jesus with people like we should have. For this reason, people in general care less about what is moral or what is right in God's eyes, which I believe has in turn led people to have a decreased regard for those in need and an increase in selfishness and interest in personal gain. This leads to more people being in need.

The government sees this need and tries to bring human solutions to the table to correct this. Some have good intentions, but as the saying goes, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." Add to the equation those that are seeking their own personal gain (i.e., corruption), and you get a system that is doomed to failure. God's plan was that everyone give generously to each other according to their need. A good example of this is Acts 2:24 - 27. People stepped up and eagerly took care of each other in the early church. Although I'm sure this still goes on today, there is plenty of opportunity to do more, on everyone's part.

I can give more. We all can give more. It may encroach on our lifestyles for now, but the rewards are eternal. We could even turn this nation around.