People I really care about tell me over and over again how as a Christian I should be a liberal. They insist I should relish the way our current government is ravaging the Constitution for Socialist gain.  I have even heard over and over again the comment that Christ would be a Socialist.  I simply marvel at the indelicate nature of the remark, as well as what I believe to be a potential violation of the Commandment not to take the Lord’s name in vain.  Christ can and did speak for himself and those who choose to speak for Him rattle my cage more than a little.

You see, Socialism is a form of governing.  Every form of government has a certain limitation on free will and Socialism has more than most. Certainly, it has more than Capitalism whose basic concept is the creation of fair markets by the general public’s exercise of free will.  Socialism in both its economic and political forms places restrictions on the creation and dispersion of wealth.  By that I mean that it not only constrains your choices in how you might earn your money it absolutely constrains your choices in how you would spend it. You cannot for instance purchase a 100 watt incandescent light bulb even though you have headaches brought on by the pulsed fluorescing of a CFL bulb.  You may not be able to invest your dollars in certain companies nor choose what bank you might want to save it in.  You might be restricted in how you insure yourself or be unable to use your money to start a business that would compete in a government regulated industry.  Socialism constrains all the potential uses of money for “the good of the State”.  This is done regardless of whether you agree with the uses of the money by the State or not.  The State decides.

It is fair to say a free market economy and form of Government limits your choices to what is legal.  The bar is set at what would interfere with another’s rights but does not presume to spend your money for you to do that which the State deems proper. Any form of taxation that is spent on efforts that fall outside the very limited focus of the Federal Government as described in the Constitution is a powerful constraint on your ability to choose something else to do with that same resource.  (That is known as the opportunity cost and it is really the most heinous tax of all.) The constraints on those choices are enforced by a government through the threat of forced imprisonment.  You have no choice to say no.  Should you refuse to pay your taxes as protest of the loss of your free will, your money, your assets, your ability to do what you are good at and the time you have to do it will be taken from you, by the state and by force.

In my church we call those things your Time, Talent and Treasure.  It is what we ask of you willingly and of your own free will to tithe as part of your covenant with Christ.  In fact we would turn down your tithe were we to understand you had not given it freely. The left presumes a moral high ground in taking your choices from you and using your money for things they deem better than the choices you would make.

If you can find for me the scripture where my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ said it was just fine with Him to take from non-believers by force of arms: to rob them of their free will, then I am willing to listen. Until then, I figure those who want me to cast my lot for forced “tithing” at the altar of social engineering are singing from a hymnal of hypocrisy and preaching politics not religion.