"Christian" Economy

While I alluded to this in my last post, I wanted to deal a little more fully with politics and economics from a Christian perspective. First point: God did not invent the free-market political system. It's not in the Bible, and there seem to be several things against this in the Bible.

BUT--while the Bible seems to advocate a form of socialism, we must remember that it had God as its beginning, middle, and end. In modern forms of socialism, religion is viewed as unnecessary and even harmful to the process. In short, socialism does not work with the separation of church and state.

Further, if you look at the Old Testament, the ideal was a loose confederation of tribes, all following God, and the evil was a more and more concentrated form of monarchy--i.e., bigger government, with Solomon the chief offender putting his subjects to forced labor and high taxes.

I think it just has to come down to preference. There is a time and place for everything, and God is still even in control of the worst and most oppressive governments. Their times will end, and God will emerge victorious.

As to the Free Market, I personally like it. I like choosing between Wal-Mart and small businesses. I personally like Reagan's policies of cutting taxes and government and letting people do their best, and be rewarded, not punished (more heavily taxed), for success. It seemed to work great in the 80's by turning the nation's highest unemployment and interest rates into the nation's greatest and longest time of prosperity during peacetime. History speaks for itself.

Reagardless of which president takes office next January, God is still in control. It's a comfort (though small) to know that in Jesus' time the tax rate was around 80%. Roman government had an enormous welfare program. Early Christians faced a horrendously unfair court system. We have it pretty good here. God will still love us and be with us, just like He was with us during the Carter and Clinton years. We seriously do not deserve the prosperity we have enjoyed over the years. It's a blessing--not a right.

Plus, it's kind of hard to ask God for wealth. Jesus didn't, and he didn't teach us to do that. He taught us to ask for what we need to get by.

That being said, I'm still not gonna vote for someone to kill the free market with higher taxes and insane amounts of government spending.

George Bush may be stupid, but I'm paying a lot less taxes now than I was before Clinton left office, not to mention sizable rebate checks two different times...just something to think about.

Coming next, Christians, government, and military.