Was Jesus a Socialist?

During the presidential election season and even more as the economic stimulus bills wend their way through the legislative process, many of President Obama’s adversaries have been accusing him of spreading “socialism.” This raises several questions for me:
1. Is the charge accurate?
2. What is socialism and why is it such a threat?
3. Was Jesus a socialist? And
4. From the perspective of Healthy Liberal Christianity how much influence on our economic system do we want Jesus’ teachings to have?

We have to begin with definitions. Socialism usually is understood according to two related definitions: it is an economic system in which the state owns everything and makes decisions about distribution of wealth, and/or it promulgates the value of a more equitable distribution of wealth in a society. We could launch into a detailed discussion about the technicalities of socialism, but that probably wouldn’t do us much good. It might help, though, to add the definition of capitalism, our economic system, as a system of private (and corporate) owners who are in competition with one another in a free market.

So what might Jesus have to say about these economic systems? Jesus stood in the tradition of the ancient prophets of Israel who periodically railed against the economic and political “domination systems” of their day.
(According to Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan in “The Last Week,” domination systems have three characteristics: They include political oppression, economic exploitation, and religious legitimation of the first two characteristics.)
Jesus didn’t talk about economic systems directly, but he certainly lifted up the all too present realities of poverty and hunger in a way that could be taken as an indictment of the existing system, but his point was probably not about the replacement of one economic system with another.

He does refer to some of the consequences of too much reliance on material things and on earthly power. He noted that it was exceedingly difficult for people to participate in the Realm of God if they were rich. In another place, he noted that the distinction between what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God was a false distinction. For Jesus, all belonged to God. When he spoke about the characteristics of the Realm of God, he did not use economic or political terms. He used the language of love. In other words, social policy was to be based on people mattering to each other, not on competition (where the devil necessarily takes the hindmost).

As long as we try to determine the best economic system, we are missing the point. Healthy community is based on people caring about each other so that needs are met. It is never about the ability to become wealthier than someone else. Jesus makes it clear that people and relationships are more important than empire or the accumulation of wealth.

It is interesting to me that the defenders of capitalism argue that the opportunity to create more wealth is the only real motivation for creativity, productivity, and progress in a culture. Jesus and the prophets make it clear that such social/economic systems will always collapse eventually under rampant greed. Said differently, economic systems that are solely based on the amassing or distribution of wealth are not sustainable, particularly to the degree that they are “systems of domination,” whether by the state over the people or the wealthy over the poor matters not. Is it not possible that creativity is its own motivation to create healthier social structures?

We could argue that some socialistic principles might be more consistent with Jesus’ message, but that does not make Jesus’ message socialistic. The character of economic systems is largely determined by locating the source of the power to make people comply. Whether that power comes from the state or from market “forces” doesn’t matter – both are domination systems that have oppression as their central feature.

So that my writing today does not become simply an unrealistic, utopian dream, we must ask one final question. What are the practical means we can use to teach ourselves, our neighbors, and our children to love? If we are to promote the Realm of God, we must struggle with that question above all others. I think that is the challenge facing the church today. I believe that alongside our human capacity to compete, we also carry the human (or even divine) capacity to care. Let’s work to bring it out.

What do you think?

Wayne Gustafson
God is still speaking!
The United Church___of Christ