Sunday, July 29, 2007

Christian Communism


We are having a party now. Classes just ended and we are having potluck. Students brought food. Really lots of food! Pizzas. Fried chicken. etc.
Imagine! My students who are merely teenagers can afford to buy those food? Wow! I don't even have the guts to go to that famous pizza parlor!
It dawned upon me that there really is a gargantuan difference between the rich and the poor here. A regular factory worker, a policeman or a public school teacher here only earns around two dollars a day. While my students can spend 3 dollars for food for a two-hour party?
Two days ago while I was on my way to school a car stopped in front of me. When I look at the driver's seat I saw one of my students. Imagine? Barely a teenager and he has his own car? While the per capita income in Cambodia is 500 dollars per annum. Wow!
I was reminded of the lifestyle during the pentecost. Christians sold their properties and distributed the proceeds among all Christians. Rich and poor. No descriminations.
I asked myself: Is it possible to have that equality? Is it similar to communism espoused by Mao Tse Tung and Karl Marx? Can we apply biblical truth in interpreting Des Kapital?
I believe that the Bible teaches equality not only in status but in material position. I believe that the true christian community is the one which there is no great divide between the rich and the poor.
Where selfish ambition is inexistent. Where bourgeois capitalism is nil.
Now, that is what true christianity is.

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