My grandfather used to enjoy raising eyebrows by proclaiming that, "Christ was the first communist."

What I find amazing is the lack of "big picture" thinking most people with a "voice" have nowadays. I understand the suffering, I understand our reaction to the pictures and videos of violence but to lose sight of what it all means in the long wrong is sheer folly. I'm sure God Himself would wish no more to suffer but seeing as how we've been given a wonderful gift in free will He just can't swoop down from on high and change it all because I'm betting He sees long term as well. Astounding to see people of faith lacking that lesson.

As for Jesus being Commie or Socialist I suppose, in a way, you can see that. Nevermind I would think the Lord would transcend such titles. But you could also argue Jesus being a capitalist easy enough by referencing the parable of the talents. Seems the guy who just sat on his talents didn't make out to well compared to those who went out and created more from the original sum.

I never got the Parable of the Talents. No other passage of Mathew is as confusing to me. I had thought that this was a parable of a bad “Master” who has no compassion and takes from the meek to give to the capable. For instance in Luke the Master says “You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow?” I know that some (or all) Calvinists take this as a passage to work hard.Are there different interpretations? If find most of the Gospels clear but this one has stumped me.

In any case, most of the rest of the Gospels makes Jesus appear altruistic and a pacifist. If he's not a socialist it's because he's not a political man. Perhaps he'd prefer a Kibbutz.

I clicked on the link to the news story about Chavez' pronuciamento of Christian Socialism, hoping Don Hugo would provide some New Testament chapter and verses to support his assertion, but alas no. My first thought, when people quote the New Testament to buttress some political position, is, "But what translation are you using?" I've read the King James, the Lattimore translation from the Greek, and parts of others, and I don't recall anything Jesus said that supports socialism; certainly not State socialism. He did tell the rich kid to sell off his stuff and give the proceeds to the poor but I'm not sure he was issuing a universal command. I don't recall him saying anything about the State having the right to coercively redistribute wealth (although given that in his day much wealth had been coercively distributed by the State, he would not have been entirely unjustified). It's hard to reconcile "He who takes up the sword will perish by the sword" (which, by the way, Francisco d'Anconia in ATLAS SHRUGGED says is his favorite line in the Bible) with the modern cult of Fidel and Che.