The political-left properly condemns the political-right for lobbying government to force its religious values on others. However, the political left, despite that many of its proponents don’t explicitly preach or practice religion (some are atheists), is itself guilty of this charge.
At root, Judeo-Christianity commands the believer to have faith in and sacrifice himself to God. Proponents of the political-right who want to politicize their religious beliefs generally seek to control the individual’s mind by having government force him to obey (or to at least consider) God’s alleged moral truths, as by censoring certain entertainment materials and by instituting prayer in public schools. Their counterparts on the political-left generally seek to control the individual’s physical being by having government force him to accept the Crucifix’s moral symbolism (i.e., the sacrifice of the ideal man to less virtuous men), as by welfare-statism.
The modern welfare state, the left’s predominant politics, is an outgrowth of Karl Marx, the father of modern Communism, an ideology that — contrary to the political-right’s fundamental opposition to it (“Communism is evil because it is Godless!”) — is an outgrowth of Judeo-Christianity.
Communists reject God but uphold Judeo-Christian ethics. They merely replace the individual’s sacrifice to God with “Society” — which they regard not as a sum of individual’s, but as a omnipotent, supernatural, amorphous entity wherein the individual is a mere sacrificial cog. Whatever “Society” says or commands, they maintain, the individual must have “faith” in and sacrifice himself to. Communism then is simply a socialized form of religion.
On this same ethical foundation, welfare-statists lobby government to legislate pseudo-rights that force the individual producer to sacrifice his physical being, that is, his property, to Society’s lesser producers or parasites, whether they are “the poor” — via welfare programs; “the elderly” — via social security; “the sick” — via “universal” health care; or the various other groups that are of importance to them.
A few Biblical passages provide them that foundation to justify these sacrifices they command of others.
Acts 2:44-45: “All that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.”
Matthew 19:21: “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor…”
Acts 4:34-37: “Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.”
2 Thessalonians. 3:10-12: “For even when we were with you, this we command you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
Thus, the various politics of the left share ideals with Judeo-Christiany, such as “need” as the standard of value. Both command the individual to distribute, either in part or in full, his material possessions, so that men have all things in common; and they regard moral perfection as attainable through self-sacrifice. Moreover, they command the individual to act, in effect, according to his ability and need, and if he will not labor for “Society,” food will be withheld from him.
Although these passages say nothing about the state’s enforcement of the values expressed in them, the political-left demands they be enforced. This is no different than proponents on the political-right who believe the state must forcibly convince the individual of their religious values.
But the individual’s right to his own life, liberty, property and pursuit of happiness, is the fundamental politics on which our Constitutional Republic rests. However, despite that America’s Founders established a separation of church and state and the individual’s right to live by his chosen morality, so long as he refrains from initiating physical force or fraud against others, they allowed for government’s limited financial distribution to poorer Americans.
Unfortunately, such Judeo-Christian elements infected and eroded their fundamental politics, particularly during this century as both the political- right and -left increasingly legislated group-“rights”; thereby instituting a democracy, i.e., the subordination of individual rights to majority vote — i.e., mob rule.
But America’s survival depends on the Founder’s fundamental politics being practiced consistently. That requires the political-right and -left to understand that their ethics are not interchangeable with all Americans, and therefore government has no right to force them on anyone.
