Would Jesus be a capitalist?

       I know I have just now made 90% of American Christians who read this succumb to best their Joseph McCarthy impression, "YOU COMMUNIST!!!!!!!", but I'm very serious with this question. I believe the ideal christian is Christ himself, and in my pursuing his example and testing myself to create a bullet-proof faith requires me to ask a lot of questions about the moral paradoxes I encounter as an American on a daily basis. What paradoxes you ask, well when I picked up the bible I stumbled upon some pretty anti-capitalist (Capitalism being defined as an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for a private profit) scripture in the good book, I'll give you 3 points to start of with because this is the main point of my blogging.

#1   I believe an ideal Christian should be non-materialistic, Luke 12:15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” a very un-american idea indeed......considering we are in a tooth and nail fight with each other for the biggest car, biggest house, biggest rims, biggest TV's, this scripture to me speaks on the virtues of a minimalist life style, where you are in control of you possessions rather than them controlling you...... ahem.......not consumerism.

#2  Lets go to Luke 19,  the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus the crooked chief tax collector of Jericho, Zacchaeus was a rotten guy stealing from the poor for taxes, probably a very profitable gig. Jesus comes along and tells him He will be staying at his place, Zacchaeus is so moved by Christ he showed all the people criticizing them being together that he indeed was beyond his rotten ways thanks to Jesus's and gave four times back to the poor whatever he thought he had gained dishonestly. Did Jesus say hey wait that's ridiculous what about your Season NFL tickets!?! your Cable with 3000 channels!?!, he said something considerably revolutionary: LUKE 19:9  Jesus said to him, “Today salvation ²⁴  has come to this household, ²⁵  because he too is a son of Abraham! ²⁶  19:10 For the Son of Man came For the Son of Man came ²⁷  to seek and to save the lost.”


#3Mar 10:25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Luk 18:25 In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Mat 19:24 Again I say, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God.”

I made all the above so you can see for yourself this is all straight out of the bible. I challenge you to even try and take any of this out of context. The above scripture explains a reality that is so distant than what I believe Americans see.......how could we get it so wrong.........

       The bible teaches us to be rich in spirit, not in worldly accumulations. I'm very convicted my understanding of the reasoning behind this, the false sense of security wealth brings drives a prideful wedge between the human soul and God's mission of humanity's salvation. This sounds so "lefty" of me but I believe more christians took up the cross for economic justice, on a global scale, the world would be more willing to hear the words of Christ. If we showed more material sacrifice for the greater good of the human race, as opposed to displaying such selfish glorification on the shoulders of others, the church would be much more viable than it is today.