by Clifford F. Thies

No doubt about it, everyone believes that what he believes is correct and what others believe is wrong. And, when it comes to religious beliefs, this means heresy. Latest in the accusations of heresy is that Governor Rick Perry of Texas, an evangelical Christian, is a heretic as his politics “are not the politics of Jesus, but the politics of Ayn Rand.”

Jesus, we are told, taught we should sell our possessions and give the proceeds to the poor, not fight for tax cuts for the rich. And, Jesus taught we should honor and love the children, not cut programs that help poor kids and cut schools that teach all kids.

These accusations reflect the progressive movement’s influence on the church. One of the leaders of the Social Gospel Movement among protestant Christianity, at the turn of the 19th into the 20th Century, Richard T. Ely, said “Christianity is primarily concerned with this world.” He said:

“God works through the State in carrying out his purposes more universally than through any other institution … The Protestant Reformation meant the exaltation of the state … The distinction of ecclesiastical and profane laws can find no place among Christians … The main purpose of the State is the religious purpose. Religious laws are the only laws which ought to be enacted.”

Mixed into the message of a theocratic and socialistic state were the supposedly scientific doctrines of population control, eugenics, natural aristocracy, race and nation. The Social Gospel’ers taught that inferior people were to be segregated, placed in labor colonies, and – above all else – prevented from reproducing.

The Catholics mostly resisted the evil that was brewing within the Protestant community; but, by mid century, even they succumbed, endorsing the Mussolini’s fascist form of socialism. To be sure, this form of socialism was not as corrupt as Hitler’s Nazi form of socialism insofar as it did not engage in race genocide, but it was plenty enough evil.

And, so, after WWII revealed just how evil were the doctrines of the all-powerful state and the denigration of some people as inferior, the decent people who had embraced the Social Gospel pulled back from their more extreme positions. Today, hardly anybody even knows what church leaders such as Richard T. Ely stood for. And, in their haughtiness, contemporary liberal Protestants attack Ayn Rand because she rejected religion along with rejecting the evil that their predecessors had associated with Christianity.

I will now interject a few words from the Bible. Jesus said:

“My kingdom is not of the world.”

Those who say otherwise are following themselves, not Jesus. Jesus said:

“Suffer the children not to come unto me.”

How, then, do we reconcile the education of children with the disestablishment of religion? Jesus performed a miracle for the payment of the Temple tax of merely two days’ wages. What kind of miracle is it today when we pay taxes amounting to more than 40 percent of our income and can live at all decently?

Jesus had this to say about those who taught against the commandments, he said they “shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.”

Why is teaching against God’s Law so strongly denounced? It is because Jesus came to save everybody. He is described as a blessing to the nations. And, the angel who proclaimed his birth proclaimed it to all men of good will. But who has undermined God’s will to save everybody: those who mix into the commandments stuff like socialism and racism?

Dr. Thies is of the Messianic Jewish faith. He resides in Virginia.