This Is Our City

Huh! I was stunned to read a review of a book in Christianity Today/Books & Culture magazine, Love Is Stronger than Debt, Against Chrapitalism by David Graeber. It is online, read it. He conflates Christianity with Capitalism to create the word, Chrapitalism. The entire book is a diatribe against the free market system and its close connection with Christianity. He promotes Communism as the answer for America. But the astounding thing is that the reviewer from Christianity Today agrees and closes his review by saying, "as Thomas Merton knew, "to be a Christian is to be a communist." And divine friendship is to live without debts by "throwing ourselves away"—giving (not charging) according to our ability, and receiving according to our need." I thought it was an anomaly, a lapse in judgment, but now I wonder.

Roger McKinney- your own knowledge of economics is suspect, as the following dialog indicates- Roger McKinney: Hermit, government ownership of the means of production is not socialism; it's communism. [continues] A Hermit: Mr. McKinney: Webster's New World Dictionary 1974 p. 710: "socialism: 1. any of the various theories of the ownership and operation of the means of production and distribution by society rather than by private individuals, with all members of society sharing in the work and the products." A Hermit: New World again: "communism: 1. a theory or system based on the ownership of all property by the community as a whole 2. a hypothetical stage of socialism, as formulated by Marx, Engels, Lenin, ..." Roger D. McKinney : Hermit, Your quote from Webster proves you are a socialist. [continues] http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/december/notaxpayerisland.html?all comments=true&showall=true

Before a coup over a decade ago, the staff of CT openly promoted Marxism. It was forced underground for a while, but tends to leak out in articles and book reviews like this one. I think writers like this believe the old Marxist saying that we are rich because we stole everything the poor had, so justice can be nothing but giving it back. Those people hate the science of economics because it proves what ignorant fools they are. CT promotes every science, even insisting that science takes precedence over scripture in the area of origins, but denies the science of economics. For CT, the ideology of Marxism has as much legitimacy and the real science of economics.

Vic, I see most of the social justice gospel nonsense coming from Andy Crouch and the departments he oversees (Cities, etc.) . I see Mark Galli, the editor of the magazine, as a theological conservative and sympathetic towards political conservatives and pentecostal or Charismatic believers. I see Tim Stafford, a major feature writer as a very fair, conservative writer. Hermeneutics has been surprisingly conservative (Good!). Gleanings has a decidedly liberal theological bias. The books chosen for review and the reviews themselves have been absolutely horrible. So it all depends on the subject area. I subscribe to the magazine because I want to know what my evangelical brethren are thinking and this is the key journal for that. It is disheartening to see the sad state of faith in the evangelical church and the disasterous and fatal adoption of social justice (which I regard as a false evangelical pentecost) which doomed mainline protestant church membership.

Rick - do you see any pattern in today's "Christianity Today" articles? I mentioned before that I will not purchase the magazine, and only read the on-line material to see the unfortunate direction these leaders are pushing us. Both of your comments are right-on. Thank-you!