Don’t Leave the Future to Bernie Sanders

Senator Bernie Sanders, socialist, spoke at Liberty University and sounded many Biblical themes.

Socialism is not communism: obviously. Communism was an outgrowth of atheism and killed more Christians, more humans, than any system in human history. You cannot be a Christian and be a communist: ask the Chinese or North Korean governments.

You can be a Christian and a socialist, though I do not think you should be.

Christianity is not tied to any particular economic or government system. Before Jesus returns to rule with perfect justice, Christians make practical decisions about the best way to govern themselves and we do not always agree. There is no “orthodox” form of government for a Christian, just a decision about what will be best at this time, in this place, with these people. The Church of Jesus Christ can co-exist with a just monarchy, republic, or socialistic state.

Why?

We are not Utopians. We know no form of government will produce perfection and that not every people group is suited or ready for every form of government. The Christian goal is to maximize justice and liberty. Sadly, people are so broken and our knowledge is so incomplete that justice and liberty are often incompatible. Poor people often are treated unjustly, but giving power to a government or group to enforce justice reduces liberty. Increasing liberty is good, though it can come at the cost of justice. The right to do good (there is no right to vice) is wonderful, but broken people misuse their liberty to oppress the weak or the poor.

Bernie Sanders does not know much about the economy, geography, or world history. He does have a heart for the poor and those treated badly. He is no tool for the establishment and is not in the pocket of the plutocrats and the pundits. Bernie Sanders wants people to have medical care, food, shelter, and equal legal representation. He wishes everyone to get the best education possible.

Christians want those things. We must applaud Sanders’ goals and not rush to condemn his methods for achieving the goals. Christians believe all human beings are created in the image of God and we despise those who favor the rich because they are rich or hate the poor because they are poor. The Kingdom of Heaven is coming with perfect justice for everyone and Christians are called to make the world as much like that coming Kingdom as possible.

Sanders is right to want good food, housing, education, and health care for everyone. In fact, Christians in Europe helped bring a mix of socialism and democracy to Western Europe to try to find a balance between justice and liberty. Germany, the United Kingdom, and Sweden all were created by Christian democrats who wanted to help the poor while maintaining liberty. Western Europe produced a somewhat democratic society that had less liberty and a lower standard of living than the United States, but a stronger social safety net.

Are American Christians ready to tip the balance of our own government in a European direction? Christians could. We need not. The problem is pragmatic, not with the ideal. Sanders would give more power to Washington and that would decrease the liberty of each American, not just rich Americans. If a man is starving, liberty is less important than food, but liberty once lost is hard to regain. Sanders’ socialist schemes would reduce the average standard of living for almost all Americans and that seems difficult.

Sanders’ ideas would (on the whole) repress creativity in business while providing more safety. Fewer people would fail, but success and excellence would be restrained. Western Europe seems unable to defend herself or compete in the modern world against more dynamic economies. Socialism works, but creates a blander, safer society that most Americans do not want.

And yet Sanders is speaking to justice issues in a way that traditional American politicians do not. Politicians like Clinton or Bush have been bought and paid for by so many people so many times that average or poor Americans no longer trust them to press for justice. Americans want liberty, but we want the system to be just. Poor people should not be in jail when rich people are set free. Poor people should not be penalized when rich people are rewarded by crony capitalistic arrangements between big government and big business.

Senator Sanders attacks the injustice and Christians must agree with him in his attack. His solutions are wrong headed, they would make society worse not better, less free. If traditional Americans, conservative Christians, leave the talk of helping the poor and the weak to Sanders, they leave the language of Jesus and the prophets to Sanders. This is unwise and may leave the next generation of Evangelicals open to Sanders’ pragmatically hopeless ideas.

We need Jack Kemp Republicans who stand for all Americans and who never forget the poor, the oppressed, and the alien. This is Biblical: just as traditional marriage and pro-life positions are Biblical. Who will take up this cause? Who will show that conservatives have solutions that will not “solve” all our problems, but will increase justice while preserving liberty?

That person deserves our support.