Dear Christians,
No, Jesus was not a socialist and did not spread socialist ideals. Jesus called his disciples to care for the least of these—the poor, the hungry, to clothe the naked, feed the homeless. This is a basic Christian principle—to help those in need, to be Christ-like and spread the Word. Feel free to put a check mark next to your fish sticker on your car. You're wiping your hands clean in a Pilate sort of way—I'm not saying "you killed Jesus"—I'm simply saying your passing the buck with your Christian duties by choosing to let the government be "generous" on your behalf with my taxes. I've been praying and researching the best way to navigate this topic because it's a touchy subject in the Christian world.
Here's the catch—who did Jesus call to care for the least of these? Seems pretty simple, he commanded his disciples to care for the poor, the hungry, the prisoners and the homeless. For some reason we've confused Jesus' commands for his disciples with instructions for the government. Jesus never told the government to take from others and redistribute to the poor, he told his disciples to personally care for the least of these.
In order for the government to give to those who do not have much, the government must first take the money from others -- yes, sometimes by force. If you do not pay your taxes, men with guns will come to your home and arrest you. I would bet if people had a choice they would not pay their taxes, simply, taxes are not voluntary, charitable donations. If some had their way, the Parable of the Good Samaritan would go like this. Two men walk down the street and notice a homeless woman with a sign that reads "Will work for food." The first man says, "It's a shame that this woman is living like this." The other man agrees responding, "Someone should do something."
A third man walks by and the first man stops the third, pinning him down, and the second man takes his wallet by force, removes 30 percent of the cash, take a big portion for himself (administration fee) and gives the rest to the woman. After doing this both men look down on the third and say, "Thanks for being charitable."
Across the board, those who believe the government should be more "charitable" give less. In fact, various studies from author Arthur Brooks and Google show that households that are conservative give 30 percent more than households that are liberal and that red states give more to charity than blue states.
There is a difference between taxes and charity. You can't claim to do Christ-like works while re-appropriating other people's money and subjectively believing the top one percent has too much money.
