I call to order yet another meeting of the Strangeness of the Month Club. This month we hear from one crusty old socialist-who-thinks-that’s-Christian named Ron J. Sider. As R. J. might tell us "repent - and become a socialist!" No motions for "collective" action will be entertained at this month’s meeting, so quiet down and let the reading begin.

Seriously Strange
Ronald J. Sider, "Speaking Out"
Christianity Today, Week of June 9, 2003

Ronald Sider has been around for a long time now, and he always yammers on and on about the same thing. That’s in part because he is the president of "Evangelicals for Socialist Revolution" - oops, I mean - "Evangelicals for Social Action."

Well, anyway you cut it, old Ronnie was, is, and ever shall be (I suppose) a socialist. He used to write books about this, which were ripped to shreds by Christian reviewers. However, decisive critique has never deterred Mr. Sider from recycling his madness, as he does in this piece.

The latest terrible "injustice" that concerns Comrade Sider is that evil tax cut of 2003. He was worried sick that, in its first incarnation, the poorest part of our population didn’t get a tax cut. As Ronald tells us - and you have to picture that bleeding heart of his throbbing pitifully on the floor:

"The tax bill just passed will increase the child tax credit from $600 to $1,000. As a result, middle- and upper-income families will get a check in July for $400 per child. But not poor working families. Because of this last-minute decision, 11.9 million poor children in working families with incomes from $10,500 to $26, 625 lost their $3.5 billion."

I suppose that would be something to worry about except for one little detail: these people don’t pay any of the taxes that are being cut! How, oh how, are we supposed to get a "tax cut" to people who don’t pay taxes?

Well, you can’t. Instead, what Ronnie and his pinko friends want to do is take money by force from those who earned it, pass it though D.C. where a hefty "handling" fee will be extracted, and send what is left to these "working poor."

We call that the "Welfare State" and it is what socialists like Sider push for when they know they can’t yet get full-fledged socialism. It’s bad enough that he wants to push his socialism on the rest of us, because it is an approach that has been and continues to be a world-wide failure. What’s worse is that he tries to foist this off on us as something the Bible teaches.

For lo these many decades, since he first climbed on this hobby horse of socialism, Comrade Sider has claimed that God favors the poor. From that little premise Sider has written whole books claiming that this means all good Christians should work to enact massive income redistribution and ideally should help implement full-fledged socialism.

According to Mr. Sider’s reading of the Bible, if someone should be clever and hard-working enough to make a lot of money, it is our duty as Christians to make sure that our government takes that money by force and gives it to someone who has less than they. Our loyal Comrade even reminds us that the Bible teaches this "in hundreds of verses."

As I peruse my trusty Bible, I run across verses such as the following:

Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. (Lev 19:15, NIV)

Ronnie apparently doesn’t much like this verse. When he judges his neighbors, he wants to steal from the rich so he can give to the poor - or at least have the government do that for him.

You shall not covet . . . anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Ex 20:17, NIV)

This also is not one of Ron’s favorites. I suppose he wouldn’t want you to covet your neighbor’s wealth, but as long as he and his Welfare State buddies do it for you, all is well.

Old socialist Sider not only gets the big points wrong, he trips over the details. For example, he says, "The Old Testament specifically provided for poor people to bring less expensive offerings for worship." Well, not exactly, not all the time at least, for it is written:

The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less when you make the offering to the LORD to atone for your lives. (Ex 30:15, NIV)

The real Bible is just a wee bit different from Sider’s socialist Bible. But as someone once said, "Seeing they shall not see."

Comrade Sider and his fellow-travelers miss an important point about the Christian faith. We are taught to share, help the needy, give freely, and just generally to be really nice guys about all the stuff we might have.

But - and this is one of those REALLY big "BUTS" - the Christian faith does not teach us to plunder our neighbors, even for the sake of charity. As the Apostle Paul once said, "For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have." (2 Cor 8:12, NIV)

I say, "Christian Socialists" unite! After you unite, repent! Understand and obey the eighth commandment. Legal plunder is not pleasing to God.