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Comedian Lewis Black Wants Socialism as “Forced Christianity”–Here’s Why He’s Wrong

Someone needs to explain to those (especially socialists) who have been misled otherwise–Jesus Christ did not preach public charity.  In fact, he taught the opposite.

Deranged, hyper-manic left wing comedian Lewis Black made a complete fool of himself Monday when he gave a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., delivering a slobbering, convulsive tirade in his usual style, that of a bombastic barroom boor who pontificates wildly in a blind rage on matters of which he knows next to nothing.

Black claims that he is one of only a handful of true socialists still alive in American society, and that his philosophy of government is the only way to enforce what he purports are the values of a Christian society.

Full videos of Black’s bellowing rant, in two segments, are at this link: rawstory.com

Black can be very entertaining with his angry, bug-eyed, ranting curmudgeon act, his hands and fingers flapping around spastically as he gesticulates and foams at the mouth–and I’m sure his fellow lying lefties which comprise the crowd at such an establishment-journalism confab were eating out of his hand, and agreeing with him.  But to anyone who actually knows and understands what Jesus Christ really taught about helping the poor, Black showed his utter ignorance.

Black delighted in erroneously (in his mind, vindictively) hollering that having socialism as the form of government forces professing Christian people to actually behave in a Christian way, to “shut up and put their money where their mouth is” by making helping the poor the official law of the land, “whether they like it or not.”

Beyond the theological falsehood in Black’s screed (and the glaring unlikelihood that the likes of Black would also want aspects of Christianity with which they disagree to be enforced by the government, such as opposition to abortion, homosexuality, etc.) there is the proven fact that socialism does the opposite of what people like Black allege.  Socialism actually spreads and aggravates pervasive poverty more than it does anything else.  But let’s focus, for now, on the Biblical misrepresentation in his remarks.

Like many, many similarly misinformed people, including even many conservatives, Black thinks that doing good by publicly helping the less fortunate is what Christianity is about.  Of course, Black and people like him have not actually understood the Bible in this regard.

To the contrary, Jesus scolded and derided those who make a public show of doing good deeds before the eyes of others.  Instead, Jesus commanded us to do such acts of charity in secrecy–to be so stealthy and under-the-radar about our benevolence that even “your left hand does not know what your right hand is doing.”  That way, Christ reminds us, we can keep ulterior, selfish agendas of trying to promote ourselves in the eyes and minds of others in check, and minimize the tendency to have mixed motives and false reasons for helping others–specifically, as a way of trying to appear to others to be good, when in fact we are really only cynically managing our public reputations:

Matthew 6:1-4; “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.  So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.  But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” 

Further demonstrating his ignorance of Biblical doctrine, Black ranted and caterwauled at length about how Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” was being stymied on the political right, by advocates of smaller government and of private sector/entrepreneurial solutions to economic problems.  Black calls for an official, government-enforced Christian ethos as an alleged way of supposedly eliminating poverty–but he clearly does not know that Jesus said “the poor will always be with you” (Matthew 26:11, Mark 14:7, John 12:8), as did the book of Dueteronomy 15:11, “There will always be poor people in the land.  Therefore I command you to be openhanded to your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.”

Doing good deeds in secret as a matter of personal, private policy is what is commanded by Christianity; not as a matter of public policy to be forced on us as a way of making politicians and their socialist supporters look good.

Christ knows the hearts of men; his words can help people like Lewis Black and the legions of limousine liberals learn to reform their ways and their rhetoric, and privately put their money where their mouths are (studies show conservatives donate far more of their own private earnings to charity than do so-called liberals), instead of seeking to make themselves appear generous by forcing a false agenda with other people’s money.

Capitalism is the honest public acknowledgement and benevolent exploitation of the human tendency toward rational self-interest.  The abundance produced by capitalism is what affords us greater opportunity to do good out of the nobler impulses of our hearts, in private and in secret, where our sincerity is not likely to be contaminated and corrupted by ulterior agendas of cynical public relations.

Unless and until Lewis Black learns how to tell the truth, he just needs to shut up, and not be given a platform such as the National Press Club luncheon.

Donald Joy

Following his service in the United State Air Force, Donald Joy earned a bachelor of science in business administration from SUNY while serving in the army national guard. As a special deputy U.S. marshal, Don was on the protection detail for Attorney General John Ashcroft following the attacks of 9/11. He lives in the D.C. suburbs of Northern Virginia with his wife and son.

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