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Christianity and Voluntary Good

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clive

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What is the origin of the quote "Christianity is the kindergarten of communism"?

I recently encountered Christian libertarians who said that the Bible never said that one should use force to do good. Since I never read it, I don't know. Someone else, maybe growing up as a christian, might have a clearer view.

Edited by clive
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Clive, that quote is apparently from Rand in some personal notes or correspondence, as indicated on page 43 of the book linked here. The next sentence in that book on Rand is surely false if one confines Christianity to biblical text alone: the Bible, including the New Testament, does not teach putting others above self, only to love them as one loves oneself. The doctrine of the moral virtue of regularly sacrificing oneself for the benefit of certain others is apparently a pretty modern stance for Christianity. Sacrifice of self in conforming to the rules of God seems the more constant doctrine down from ancient Christianity.

Those libertarians are right, again concerning the Christianity squarely contained in the New Testament. It is a fact that some Christians have used force aiming to do good from ancient times to the present, but that is really not supportable by the New Testament. It says pay your taxes and mentions that God puts the authorities in place for, of course, good purpose; but it does not say to get involved in the state, indeed it talks as if the state is something of a outsider as far as the righteous community is concerned.

If you ever desire to have a copy of the New Testament on hand for reference, I recommend the translation of J. B. Phillips. It's a breeze to read and get meaning of statements unobscured by the English of the King James era.

Edited by Boydstun
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Here's an expansion on the passage likely cited, found about halfway into the December 4, 1935 entree from:

The Journals of Ayn Rand
Part 2: The Fountainhead
4 - Theme And Characters

Furthermore, that same Christianity, with its denial of self and glorification of all men's brotherhood, is the best possible kindergarten of communism.

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Except Communists detest the Bible and any God but the 'people'. But I can't deny that the bible teaches people to see themselves as sacrificial creatures. 

The thing that always disgusts me most about Christianity is the way it tries to sell unnecessary suffering as virtuous with hairshirts, or Father Salvatore's boots in the Kappillan of Malta. Physical comfort is seen as 'bad' per se.

Championing pain is indefensible and is part of the reason why Mother Teresa let a lot of her 'patients' suffer agonies when medication was available. Suffering was seen as refining the soul. How on Earth Christianity can claim to be champions of moral good when they made such an evil woman a Saint is beyond me. Champions of NOTHING. Truthfully the Pope seems to be a nice chap but his Church is built on very weak foundations of brainwashing and cult worship. 

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As for the OP about the Bible not advocating for force. From Jesus that is pretty much the case but the rest of the Bible is about blood and guts and physical punishment to a terrifying degree.

Edited by Lawrence Edward Richard
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On 4/28/2020 at 4:04 AM, clive said:

What is the origin of the quote "Christianity is the kindergarten of communism"?

I recently encountered Christian libertarians who said that the Bible never said that one should use force to do good. Since I never read it, I don't know. Someone else, maybe growing up as a christian, might have a clearer view.

Unless I'm mistaken, the culprit guilty of authoring the idea of "justified warfare" in Christianity was Saint Augustine (Augustine of Hippo). His writings are not included in the New 
Testament, but Western theology takes Augustine pretty seriously.

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Clive, being a “kindergarten for communism” is not the same thing as communism or even conceiving of communism. Christianity in the New Testament does not advocate a kind of communism in any verse I recall. Still, regardless of Christianity, your question of whether Objectivism would class voluntary communism as immoral is a good one. I think Rand should say Yes to that question based on her writings. The character Prometheus in Anthem is learning to climb out of the communist society of his birth and youth, climb out of psychologically, not only physically by escape. He comes to recognize a natural organic unified function of his mind, desires, and action that is better to choose over the model of self and society he had been raised in. Similarly, I think on Objectivist ethics that the self-effacement that goes on in the American Amish communities should be graded as immoral, notwithstanding the voluntariness of membership (and leaving aside the immorality of fideism).

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