Socialism and Christian Thought Does Not Reconcile
By O. Henry Swartzentruber
Socialism is the hottest fad in this country since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and friends' Woke 1.0, a few years back. Weekly, I hear a new "socialist" candidate in a new place pumping out new ideas. Angie Nixon, Abdul El-Sayed, Melat Kiros, lots of candidates both near and far. The wisest mortal who ever lived, King Solomon, tells us there is "nothing new under the sun." I think he was right. Long-standing, uninterrupted Christian thought has recognized that socialism misunderstands human nature and solely focuses on the material.
In his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII explicitly labeled the abolition of private property as "emphatically unjust" because it steals from lawful possessors and harms the role and sanctity of the family. Under the Marxist-Leninist framework, socialism treats the human person not as a free being made in the image of God, but as a mere cog to be managed by state bureaucracy. I regularly see this push in my daughters' college and career prep literature. It ignores her essence, made in the likeness and image of God. Instead it becomes, "how would you like to make money?"
Furthermore, socialism directly subverts the Christian principle of subsidiarity—the idea that decisions, plans, and social care are best handled by the smallest, most local competent authority. The state-led and enforced redistribution of wealth replaces voluntary, neighbor- and love-led charity with government efforts and bean-counting. Fundamentally, Christian charity cannot be outsourced to state and federal governments. True self-government and moral virtue are not learned when we check a box to outsource a responsibility. Instead, virtue is forged when individuals, families, and churches must care for their families and neighbors. The hard stuff.
Locally, our Amish community does a great job of caring for the neighbor in need. They have to do the hard stuff. Conceptually, they resist the idea of government assistance and public or private insurance, based on a federal exemption known as Form 4029. As I tell my wife regularly, the Amish get it right. In the mid 1950s, the federal government extended the Social Security Act to include farm operators, which led the Old Order Amish to peacefully resist based on long-standing religious principles. After the IRS confiscated these persons' private property, Congress intervened with the 1965 Social Security Amendments, creating an exemption under the Internal Revenue Code for recognized, long-standing religious sects like the Old Order Amish and conservative Anabaptist groups.
The Amish correctly view 20th-century inventions like Social Security and Medicare not simply as taxes, but as a form of public assistance / insurance. For the Amish, mutual aid is a holy duty based on biblical teachings to bear one another's burdens and love your neighbor as yourself. If an individual is elderly, sick, or suffers a loss, the church provides for them directly through community funds and labor, making government programs unnecessary. I have the privilege of attending some of these church/community led events.
To qualify for Form 4029, the Amish must remain conscientiously opposed to insurance—both public and private. Accepting payouts for medical care, disability, or death benefits is seen as opposed to faith and a rejection of community, mutual aid. By signing Form 4029, an Old Order Amish Church member permanently waives all rights to receive future Social Security or Medicare payments. They willingly forfeit these benefits to maintain their religious freedom and financial independence from the state. Wow, my friends.
A formerly free society slowly becomes a managed, materialistic state when we forget that some things belong to God and community, not the state. Indeed, we should render to Caesar only what belongs to Caesar, according to Matthew 22. This standard should apply to both responsibilities (the hard stuff) and so-called rights (the good stuff).