For once, I agree with Sullivan on something.
Sullivan on the Social Gospel:
And this is why the cooptation of Christianity for various forms of socialism and redistributionism – Obama’s tendency – is worrying to me. Because it isn’t about encouraging charity; it is about the enforcement of “charity” by the strong hand of the state. And in so far as it forcibly takes people’s property from them, it also diminishes their capacity for real charity.
[…]
And the kind of voluntary communism of which Merton speaks likely only in monasteries and religious orders. In the world as it is, there should be some mandatory public provision for the poor, the sick and the indigent. But it should be a safety-net to avoid specific social evils, not a system of redistribution to construct some notion of “social justice” (see Chapter 6 in “The Conservative Soul”). In the end, the social Gospel can make Christianity less, rather than more, likely. The state cannot experience faith; and it cannot express charity. Only individuals can. One by one.
I don’t agree much with Sullivan. But he’s 100% spot on here. That whole social gospel thing scares the crap out of me. In case anyone has forgotten. Jim Jones and his group of followers, who ended up committing mass suicide, (Although some say that there were some who were murdered, but I digress) they were into what was known as the social gospel. Martin Luther King Jr. Also preached the Social Gospel. It’s that while mantra of “You owe me this“, that bothers the crap out of me.
Technorati Tags: Social Gospel, Obama, Politics, Christianity, Democrats, Librals