UTOPIAN, LAISSEZ-FAIRE CAPITALISM (FAITH IN MAMMON), COERCIVE SOCIALISM, OR THE VISION OF JESUS CHRIST

     

It amazes me how the disciples of Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Murray Rothbard, etc., can actually write that laissez-faire capitalism is "the only fair and just economic system that has been discovered." (Michael Moore, Your Heart Is in the Right Place, by Todd Steinberg. LewRockwell.com. October 25, 2008.) They go on to say that the choices are between Communism (one-party dictatorship), socialism (usually termed democratic socialism), mercantilism, crony capitalism, and laissez-faire capitalism. At least those are the most often cited choices. I never see Christianity offered by them as an option.

It's not difficult to understand why they don't offer Christianity — don't even mention it except in some limited, twisted version.

Jesus Christ is not a Communist in the one-party dictatorship sense. He is not a coercive socialist, which includes democratic socialism. He is not a mercantilist. He is opposed to crony capitalism. He is also not a laissez-faire capitalist. Christianity is none of those things. Christianity is an alternative to them. It is something else.

What the laissez-faire capitalist Austrian-School and to a lesser degree Chicago-School advocates claim is that laissez-faire capitalism is the least coercive of the choices they mention. They claim that, that means laissez-faire capitalism is the freest condition possible. They do all of this based upon the terminology they've created and to which they hold all others, as if there are no competing definitions or connotations of the terms they use in constructing their philosophical position.

Their vision is in competition with the vision of Jesus Christ as Jesus states his position and not just as people have twisted and chopped it up down through the centuries.

Now, it is up to each individual to place the utopian vision of Murray Rothbard, et al., next to the message and example of Jesus for direct comparison. Which one is superior? Both claim the ideal. Todd Steinberg wrote an open letter to Michael Moore stating on behalf of the Austrian School, as I quoted above, that laissez-faire capitalism is "the only fair and just economic system that has been discovered." I dispute that.

Laissez-faire capitalism is not only not "the only fair and just economic system that has been discovered," it is not fair, just, nor free. Furthermore, the political-economic system that would result from humanity beginning to follow Jesus's teachings in earnest would be fairer and more just than any other system and with every passing year until absolute fairness and justice were reached. The freest one may be is free of evil. Laissez-faire capitalism does not free the soul from evil relative to Christianity.

If we are going to put all options on the table for consideration, let's not leave the completely voluntary (non-coercive) giving-and-sharing-all economic system off the table as if it doesn't exist. It exists

As I've written numerous times before, Heaven is not capitalistic. Christians are to bring forth in the here and now. We pray for Heaven to come to Earth.

Lastly, so as to not make a huge post, let me just say that laissez-faire capitalism has at its base a foundation of self-interest where the self is apart from the whole. In Christianity, that must be based on Jesus's teaching and nothing that conflicts with it, the whole is God. Think about it.

You can not be both a laissez-faire capitalist and a Christian.

No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Luke 16:13)

Then come the Calvinists saying such things as Jesus's kingdom isn't of this world and that it isn't for us to bring forth but rather to sit or stand by never conflating and waiting for Jesus to return to do all the heavy lifting.

Jesus's kingdom isn't of this world not in the way those Calvinists view it or for the reasons they cite. Jesus's kingdom is within each heart. He made that very clear. We bring forth from what is within. If God and Jesus are indwelling as spirit, then the tree will bring forth good fruit only. It's that simple, and no amount of twisting the scripture in an attempt to get out of it will work.

Either you come together and bring forth or you are not doing what Jesus says. What we are to bring forth is very specific too. It cannot be done by those with evil intentions or who do not love God as Jesus defines God. It's not possible. Satan cannot do it. Only God can bring forth God.

All that the Calvinists teach based upon selective interpretations of a handful of verses from Paul isn't going to change this.

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