Th History of Christian Political Economy

Erik W. Matson and Jordan Ballor have done a great service to the church with their book, A History of Christian Political Economy: From the Patristics to the Present. Some Christians place greater weight on the theologies of church fathers because they assume that being closer in time to Christ, they held to a more pure theology. So, it's important to know what they thought. 

Amos does not condemn the US

The evangelical left loves to use the book of Amos to bludgeon conservative Christians, the vast majority of evangelicals, who promote capitalism. After all, they say, does not this passage from chapter six describe the luxury of the American lifestyle?

4 Those who recline on beds of ivory

And sprawl on their couches,

And eat lambs from the flock

And calves from the midst of the stall,

5 Who improvise to the sound of the harp,

And like David have composed songs for themselves,

6 Who drink wine from sacrificial bowls

While they anoint themselves with the finest of oils,

Yet they have not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.

The High Cost of Free Healthcare

 

One of the main concepts in introductory economic classes is that most things that people value are scarce. That's why we pay money for them, unlike air. And money is nothing more than our saved labor, services we have rendered to others in the past. In the market, we merely exchange services. 

Healthcare is no different. Doctors and medicine are scarce. That's why we pay for them. The US  suffers from an artificially large scarcity due to regulations, but even counties that offer free healthcare face scarcity. In the US, medical care is very expensive because of the artificial shortage caused by regulations and partly because we can afford it. We ration that scare resource though high prices. 

The Presbyterian Rebellion and the Evangelical Left

The Evangelical left wants Christians out of politics, but not all Christians, just conservatives. That's why they try to shame Christians who voted for Trump, claiming we sold our souls for power and insinuate we are Nazis by calling us Christian nationalists. If conservative Christians retreat from politics as we did for most of the 20th century before 1980, The Evangelical left will have the field of governance to itself and with the anti-Christian socialists. It's sad and revealing that the Evangelical left is more comfortable being yoked with anti-Christians than with the more than 80% of evangelicals who are politically conservative. 

The Evangelical left will be horrified at the political involvement of Christians during the U.S. Revolution, if they learn about it. They were so involved that many in England, including the king, called the Revolution the Presbyterian rebellion. The English referred to Presbyterian clergy as the black robed regiment.  You can Google for the phrase "Presbyterian rebellion" and find many articles, or ask you favorite AI program about it. Meanwhile, here is a good article on the topic from Ligonier Ministries. 

The Great Society vs anemic DSA

 Having recently finished reading Amity Shlaes'  Great Society: A New History about the Johnson administration's "war on poverty" in the 1960s, I couldn't help comparing the ambition then with the anemic goals of Democrat Socialists today. 

Trump isn't the first politician to claim he could make America great again. President Johnson and his administration aimed for the complete elimination of poverty. The DSA wants cheaper food through government owned grocery stores, free healthcare and education, and rent control. Of course, the scaled down ambitions of the extreme left probably has a lot to do with the massive failures of Johnson's Great Society depicted in Shlaes' book. 

Will Musk kill 9 million people?

 

While head of DOGE, the department of government efficiency, Elon Musk dismantled the US Agency for International Development, UDAID. Many claimed that would lead to massive deaths. The Lancet medical journal tried to quantify the human toll – projecting that global aid cuts could lead to at least 9.4 million additional deaths by 2030.

Statistics are the easiest and most effective way to lie to people because very few understand statistical analysis and are suckers for charlatans who pretend to be experts. A few have responded to the poor analysis by the Lancet. One of the better is at Reason magazine. 

Biblical Jubilee did not redistribute land

Christian socialists try desperately to squeeze socialism out of a few Bible passages, especially those in the Torah on Jubilee (Leviticus 25:8–13  and debt forgiveness (Deuteronomy 15). But they only expose their superficial grasp of the passages. 

Jubilee did not involve land redistribution. In modern terms it prevented the permanent sale of land. It only allowed others to lease the land until Jubilee, 49 years at most. The price paid was the value of the produce of the land for the years remaining until Jubilee. So, if the land could produce 1,000 bushels of wheat in a year and there were 10 years left to Jubilee, the lease price was the value of 10,000 bushels of wheat. The lease ended at Jubilee. The owner didn't sell the land then get it back for free at Jubilee as socialists think.