How’s that for placing a target on my back?  I guess I didn’t learn the lesson of how to win friends and influence people.  I am a preacher but that will count for little with those who find what I am saying objectionable.  They will argue that I am confused or simply wrong, and that’s okay with me.  I believe that I am on solid ground morally, ethically, constitutionally, and biblically in my position. 

This is still America, the land that is supposed to embrace Freedom of Speech which includes Freedom of Religion and Thought.  Our Founders did not all agree on everything, but they believed in those inalienable rights and in open and honest discussion of all matters.  Tragically, many today no longer believe in that principle.

But back to my title and why I would make that assertion.  I am referring to the speaker at the DNC who claimed that the Bible and the Constitution are both Socialist Documents.  Seriously?  Yes, that’s what he said.  The he of which I speak is the Right Reverend William Barber, the president of the North Carolina Chapter of the NAACP. 

It was nothing more than a political stump speech.  He offered the typically used Liberal Talking Points and ignored the abandonment of the Left regarding economic liberty.  He ignored their attempts to make the United States another Venezuelan cesspool economically.  But, then, he is a Leftists and he must amend the Bible and the Constitution to fit his ideology. 

He argued, wrongly, his view.  He said, “When we embrace moral language, we must ask does our policy care for the least of these?  Does it lift those who are most marginalized and dejected in our society?  Does it establish justice?  That is the moral question.”  (No argument from me thus far, but he continued.) 

He said, “If someone calls it socialism, then we must compel them to acknowledge, that the Bible, then, must promote socialism.”  (Whoa Nellie, now he is bordering on very dangerous and erroneous ground.)  He continued, “Because Jesus offered free healthcare to everyone and he never charged a leper a co-pay.”  (Talk about stretching the Bible to say what you want it to say.)

He continued his diatribe saying, “You want to have…it is time for us to say, if you want to have a moral debate, bring it on baby.  The Bible says a nation will be judged by how it treats the poor and the sick and women and immigrants.”  (Wow!  Where could he be going with this?  He is partially correct but the elastic in his doctrine is stretching.)  He continued, “The Bible says that God makes it rain on the just and unjust alike.  If you want to call caring for folks’ socialism, then the Constitution is a socialist document because it calls us to promote the general welfare and establish justice.” 

Yes, Reverend it does but not in the way you describe.  It is not in embracing socialism but in allowing people the opportunity to pursue happiness and work.  The Bible also says that a person who does not provide for his own is worse than an infidel. It also says that if any person would not work that person should not be given food to eat.  I guess those are to be ignored but then this is where we seem to be in the minds of those embracing liberalism, socialism, and the entitlement mentality. 

This is heretical balderdash, in my view, and must not go unanswered.  This is not new and will continue long past the current era of political wrangling, but it is dangerous.  We are called to help those in need, but that is on a personal and individual basis.  You cannot use the Bible to prove that Jesus taught that the government was to take care of the poor, but the people and the church were to do so. 

The Bible’s directives regarding charity do not include a mandate that we send our money to the government to dispense as it sees fit.  There is no mandate to fill the coffers of the government so bureaucrats can live high on the hog off what was designed for the poor. The Clinton’s Foundation comes to mind here. 

In the Bible ‘tax collectors’ were equated to harlots and viewed as thieves, not social justice warriors to be lauded with praise.  That might give a small inkling of how the government of man was viewed in the Bible.  But, those on the left following the toxicity of liberalism and socialism will never acknowledge that.

The Reverend Barber may be a wonderful man and a great preacher, but he seems to know little about Christian theology or the Bible.  He knows even less about the Constitution.  It is assuredly not a collectivist document as he seems to believe.  The Bill of Rights is a direct challenge to his view.  A view that is eerily familiar in the New York Times 1619 Project. 

The Bible warns against covetousness and the Reverend and his cohorts seem to be steeped in that condition wanting the government to be afforded coercive power to steal from the people to redistribute to those of their choosing.  I call him a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

If the State where to seek to provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, it would ultimately become nothing more than a bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing it purports to supply.  Everybody truly needs love and personal concern.  However, we do not need, and the Constitution does not offer a State which regulates and controls everything. 

The idea of the bible is that charity and charities are the work of individuals and Churches, not governments.  People need more than ‘bread’ and when the government provides it demands control.  We should be very wary of that reality.

I pray that we will all become concerned about the poor and the truly needy and take personal steps to alleviate all the suffering we can.  However, I also pray that we will maintain our understanding that the federal government is not our source and supply. 

I pray that we will recognize personal accountability and personal responsibility.  I pray that we will never allow the liberal leftist to transform America into a third-world Socialist cesspool economically and a tyrannical entity governmentally.  God help us to remain the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.  May we never give up our inalienable right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

God bless you and God bless America!