Was Jesus the first communist?

[Dagny]

There is an ongoing debate in another thread about whether Jesus really wanted his disciples to give away all their possessions. A plain, unbiased reading of the stories in question leads to the conclusion that Jesus may have been the first communist. In fact Christians DID live communally in the early days of the cult.

I light of this, the "Religious Right" may be the ultimate hypocrisy.

Just a thought.

[McCulloch]

An interesting thought. Perhaps you should work up a debate question to see how the Christians here answer it.

Review the lives and teachings of the Amish and have a look at Tips on starting a debate topic.

[Rathpig]

Marxism and the resulting state-capitalist implementations of command economy socialism have skewed the public understanding of the word "communist". None of the popular "communist" nations actually were technically communist.

Jesus, or those writing in the name of the mythological entity, however did advocate what can only be described as a social communist system.

This is a very interesting topic and one that strongly displays the religious hypocrisy of the traditional Christian Church and the horrible hypocrisy of the U.S. Religious Right (Reich) version of Christianity.

[pwsoldier]

Given the abundance of scripture on the subject of rejecting the things of the world, I'd say that arguing against the claim that Christ was a Communist would be a very difficult task. I wouldn't encourage this kind of thinking among hardline fundies though. Can you say communal theocracy? *shudder* I doubt that would ever happen though. They seem to be quite content with prosperity "doctrine" these days.

[Zzyzx]

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Communism is defined as: “a theory advocating elimination of private property, or a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed”

Ideology and emotion often embellish the connotations of words we commonly use – particularly when they are associated with “the enemy” or those we “don’t like”.

Capitalism, a competitive ideology, is defined as: “an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market”

I have no opinion regarding whether a character I regard as mythical “was a communist”. However, biblical descriptions statements attributed to Jesus seem to indicate a dislike for commercialism and for accumulation of wealth by individuals. Perhaps that could be taken as indication that the character depicted favored some form of non-capitalistic society (without identifying any preferred system).

[Cathar1950]

An interesting thought. Perhaps you should work up a debate question to see how the Christians here answer it.

Review the lives and teachings of the Amish and have a look at Tips on starting a debate topic.

I was just writing about the Hutterites this morning.
I would love to see more on this subject.
Even if I have a rather Mennonite sympathy I found them t be to biblical for me but like the Cathars I admired their fathfulness and ethics. I also feelowshiped with Coominity Mennonites and my son has his religion on his birth record as a Mennonite just in case he didn't feel like going to war and kill others.