Agreed that as Christians we should give a helping hand and care for the sick.

Disagreed: that these things are a State function according to Christian principles. I reject the idea that we are called to what I term “surrogate Christianity” or “surrogate charity” (i.e., the kind that involves getting the government to do it. Because it involves forcibly extracting property from the unwilling, to be skimmed off by the unworthy, and the remainder given to the ungrateful. No one’s soul is saved.

You mean like black slaves were free, and their descendants were free under segregation, and their descendants are free from the behavioral effects of the forced break-up of the slave family and the decades of Jim Crow humiliation? And like kids growing up in the inner-city are free from the pressures of that dysfunctional society?

I’m not a Marxist. I don’t believe that for one man to succeed another must be exploited (although plenty of exploitation does occur). I believe that people need to be held responsible for their actions, and that character is a major determinant of fate. But a lot of folks who preach “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” have had advantages they don’t realize or acknowledge.

I also think that as Christians we’re commanded to be a lot more concerned with feeding the hungry and caring for them when they’re sick than with some of them (many of them, I’ll acknowledge) ripping us off by being, well, only human and prone to sin like we are in different ways.

The above was taken from: — From the “Twenty-Five Point” Programme of the German National Socialist Workers Party, authored by Adolf Hitler and others on February 24, 1920. (Konrad Heiden’s translation in A History of National Socialism)

Interesting, no?

2)THE ACTIVITIES OF THE INDIVIDUAL MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO CLASH WITH THE INTERESTS OF THE COMMUNITY, BUT MUST TAKE PLACE WITHIN ITS CONFINES AND BE FOR THE GOOD OF ALL …

3)WE DEMAND THE NATIONALIZATION OF ALL BUSINESSES WHICH HAVE BEEN AMALGAMATED (INTO TRUSTS).

4)WE DEMAND THAT THE STATE SHALL SHARE IN THE PROFITS OF LARGE INDUSTRIES.

5)WE DEMAND THAT PROVISION FOR THE AGED SHALL BE MADE ON A VERY GREATLY INCREASED SCALE.

6)WE DEMAND A LAND-REFORM SUITABLE TO OUR NATIONAL REQUIREMENTS, THE PASSING OF A LAW FOR THE CONFISCATION OF LAND FOR COMMUNAL PURPOSES; THE ABOLITION OF INTEREST ON MORTGAGES, AND PROHIBITION OF ALL SPECULATION IN LAND.

7)WE DEMAND AN AGRARIAN REFORM SUITABLE TO OUR NATIONAL REQUIREMENTS;
THE ENACTMENT OF A LAW TO EXPROPRIATE WITHOUT COMPENSATION THE OWNERS OF ANY LAND THAT MAY BE NEEDED FOR NATIONAL PURPOSES; THE ABOLITION OF GROUND RENTS; AND THE PROHIBITION OF ALL SPECULATION IN LAND.

8)…THE STATE SHALL ORGANIZE THOROUGHLY THE WHOLE CULTURAL SYSTEM OF THE NATION . . . THE CONCEPTION OF THE STATE IDEA (THE SCIENCE OF CITIZENSHIP) SHALL BE TAUGHT IN THE SCHOOLS FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. WE DEMAND THAT SPECIALLY TALENTED CHILDREN OF POOR PARENTS, NO MATTER WHAT THEIR STATION OR OCCUPATION, SHALL BE EDUCATED AT THE COST OF THE STATE.

9)IT IS THE DUTY OF THE STATE TO HELP RAISE THE STANDARD OF THE NATION’S HEALTH BY PROVIDING MATERNITY WELFARE CENTERS, BY PROHIBITING JUVENILE LABOR, BY INCREASING PHYSICAL FITNESS THROUGH THE INTRODUCTION OF COMPULSORY GAMES AND GYMNASTICS. . . .

10)(WE) COMBAT THE MATERIALISTIC SPIRIT WITHIN AND OUTSIDE US, AND ARE CONVINCED THAT A PERMANENT RECOVERY OF OUR PEOPLE CAN ONLY PROCEED WITHIN ON THE FOUNDATION OF “THE COMMON GOOD BEFORE THE INDIVIDUAL GOOD.”

Well…how far off _are_ we?