They Call Me A Communist

I was a red-blooded American, I loved Pat Tillman, and hated Michael Moore. It was 12:15am and I was on the phone with my brother arguing about communism and democracy. Which governmental system was best? By this time, I was in my 2nd year of teaching, and my brother was working on his bachelors in sociology from the University of Oregon. We both used circular logic and explained our cases thoroughly. But neither of us were right. My argument went along the same lines as Winston Churchill's:

“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Plus, Stalin and Mao and their communist policies both killed more than 50 million people each, and that isn't even mentioning Pol Pot or Fidel Castro.

My brother went on to graduate first in his class from UofO, and I continued to dislike the liberal Ducks for turning my brother into a communist. I've begun to think differently.
My brother and I went backpacking in the North Cascades this past summer, great trip except for the mosquitoes. I was looking forward to the trip, but in some ways I wasn't. God was asking me, in very clear ways, to ask Casey for forgiveness. For not being the brother I should have been, for treating him like crap growing up, but most of all, for acting like I had it all figured out. If there is one thing God has shown me over the past year, it is that I don't know what I have always thought I knew.

Dom Helder Camara, a Roman Catholic Archbishop once said: "When I give bread to the poor, they call me a saint; but when I ask why people are poor, they call me a communist." I'm beginning to wonder why people are poor. A lot of people want to smile and pat me on the back because I go downtown and feed some homeless people. But those same people, get offended and become defensive when I ask why. Why do we as Christians spend less than 1% of our incoming on serving the needs of others? Why are we as a nation, based on democracy and capitalism, ignoring the needs of millions of starving people world wide while we build bigger steeples on our churches?

Governments will crumble, kingdoms will fall, but God's Kingdom is built on the Rock, Jesus Christ. So, if I put my faith in George W. Bush, or if I put my faith in Josef Stalin, my faith will wash away, people, governments, systems, made by man will fade away. Ultimately it doesn't matter what system I believe in when it gets washed out to sea. God is bigger than governments. The love that He sent down in the form of His Son, Jesus, is more powerful, more effective than economic systems. If we could all get past the argument my brother and I had and look vertically I think we would begin to see the depth, width and height of God.

As Shane Claiborne wrote in Irresistible Revolution:When we focus on Jesus, "capitalism is not possible, and communism is not necessary."