CAN A CHRISTIAN BE LEFT-WING?

Of course a Christian can be a left winger.

Ill-informed? Probably, but the answer is yes.

 

It depends what you mean by left-wing. If you mean the old-style socialist form of left-winger that we used to have in the UK (and still do in sections of the old Labour Party) ie: some kind of redistributive fiscal policies, care for the old, the ill, the poor, 'big' government, care for families, a National Health Service free to all at the point of delivery, nationalised industry, social justice, minimum wage, greater protection for unions and workers' rights (eg: employment protection, redundancy pay etc, better pensions (US=social security)etc, then the answer is yes (appealing eg: to Is 58 inter alia). The Founding Fathers of the British Labour Party were mainly Methodists and would be spinning in their graves in they knew what Blair has done to their Party

If by left-wing you mean social liberalism eg: gay marriage, greater access to abortion, destruction of the family etc, then it's a definite no-no.

It's a shame the two have become so mixed-up together; politics, particularly Christian politics, is the poorer for that

Yours in Christ

Matt

 

How can a Christian be a left-winger and still sit at the right hand of God!

 

The political left-right divide is a secular French invention.
It's Christian equivalent is the alternative left/right divide invented by Abraham Kuyper.
Christian parties are right, secular parties are left.

 

I adopt policies from both sides yet would nominally be considered centre right. From the left I agree with universal healthcare and cancelling third world debt. I think these issues are more than compatible with Christianity.

 

Yes, I believe a person can be a left-winger and a Christian. Like, Ben W, I agree with universal healthcare. I can't think of anything more Christ-like than providing care for the sick.

 

Universal healthcare is not the only way of taking care of the poor. Sadly, that is a left-wing misconception.

Aligning yourself with the "left-wing" also means accepting their views of abortion and gay-marriage.

Is universal healthcare enough of an issue that it would cause you to vote for people (or hold stances yourself) that are completely contrary to Scripture on issues like abortion and gay marriage?
Healthcare trumps critical Scriptural issues??

 

Sorry - mispost.

 

It is a different thing to support issues represented by the Left wing and actually vote for a left wing party. Christians should not vote for any party as such, but rather for candidates that they know will stand up for what the Bible teaches in Parliment.

 

JGrayhound
I suggest you reread Matt Black's post on the issue.
A party can after all be leftist on some issues and conservative on others.

 

I am talking about a candidate who is left-wing. I have no doubt to the veracity of your statement.

If a Christian is wiling to ignore a candidate's stance on issues like abortion and gay marriage in favor of his economic policy, there is something wrong.

That was my point, sorry for the confusion. I was speaking of an individual rather than a whole party, even though there does seem to be a general stance by certain parties, especially on abortion and gay marriage.

 

"there does seem to be a general stance by certain parties, especially on abortion and gay marriage. "
''
Absolutely, personally I always vote for a party with strong explicit Christian principles. The nice thing is that in my country there is a party that is willing to take a leftwing position on issues if that suits Christian principles better than a conservative position.

 

As I've stated before, I'm a bleeding-heart liberal, pro-life, pro-family, moral, Bob Casey type Democrat.

Which means I'm a rare bird.

The Democratic party used to stand for helping people. What that has to do with killing babies and applauding the breaking of God's moral laws, I have no idea.

 

Same here. This conflation of social liberalism and socialist values just wasn't a problem prior to the late '60s. Indeed, the British Labour Party didn't begin to espouse political correctness and gay rights until the early '80s, much to the disgust, by and large, of their traditional blue-collar socialist-but-morally-conservative voters, who partly switched to voting Conservative and for Thatcher just as she was destroying their unions' power-base.

Yours in Christ

Matt

 

I think they can be a Christian but I think they would have to have been lied to and not have a good knowledge of the Bible. I don't agree with national (universal) healthcare. It is socialism and it is wrong. The job of taking care of the sick is a personal, not governmental, job. We as Christians are to help the poor and so on. The government right now is too big. If you look at before the civil war (a war about states' rights not slavery) Before you were a US citizen you were a state citizen. For instance if you lived in Georgia you would be a Georgian. The states were self sufficient but united in a common cause.

 

I am a socialist because I am a Christian. I have not been lied to about my responsibilities to my brothers, my neighbor, unless you think Jesus lied.

When it comes to administration, we, in the church, abrogated our responsibilty to care for the downtrodden and needy and responsible government took up the slack.

With others, I agree, that morally bereft leaders have injected their concepts, but what do you expect from secular society?

It is interesting that most of the founding fathers of Canadian Socialism were ministers, and the leader was a Baptist minister. We combine social obligation with fiscal responsibility, but sadly mismanaged.

No man should be forced to steal a loaf of bread in order to eat.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Yes no man should be forced to steal bread but It is not the governments responsibility, it is a Christians to take care of others. Solcialism does not work. Just ask Russia. The founder of Socialism was a godless man. Captialism is a Biblical concept. If a man wants to eat he whould work for it. I work hard for my money I don't like to see my hard earned money go to lazy people who just don't want to work.

 

Socialism works here and in several other countries. Not saying it is right, but it does work.

 

How? I remember a story I believe it was from Canada of a lady who was in a car wreck and needed a CAT scan. Well, she couldn't get it because of the wait and she ended up dying from something that could have been prevented if she had been scanned when she should have been. Anyways yes it isn't right (Socialism) I'm still trying to think how it would. Again It isn't Biblical. If you want references for that I'll give you some just ask.