Change I can't believe in...

Today is a day that will, if it goes as predicted, change the course of our country and alter the very fabric of the ideals of our founding fathers. Socialism will begin to be introduced into our lives. I recently heard this summary: Socialism is the step between capitalism and communism.

Because I am a Christ follower I have likely been seen as a hypocrite because I stand against the principals of socialism as a form of government. After all, socialism seems to be all about sharing. And God calls us to share. I love sharing. But the United States government was not designed to do what individuals and church communities should be doing. The founding fathers did not intend to make the government a social problem solver with laws and rules that mean to make things "fair" but that wind up infringing on basic freedoms.

Communism is:

1.	a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state.

2.	(often initial capital letter) a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party.

3.	(initial capital letter) the principles and practices of the Communist party.

The following countries are currently communist:

China
Cuba
Laos
North Korea
Vietnam

Communism and Marxism are closely linked. According to Wikipedia, the following countries had governments at some point in the twentieth century who at least nominally adhered to Marxism:

Albania, Afghanistan, Angola, Benin, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Republic of Congo, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Ethiopia, Grenada, Hungary, Laos, Moldova, Mongolia,
Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, North Korea, Poland, Romania, Russia, USSR and its republics, South Yemen, Yugoslavia, Venezuela, Vietnam.

I note that a number of these countries have been or currently are places where people are killed for being Christ followers.

I love generosity. I believe in the call Jesus put on my life to love Him first, others next and myself last. I believe in the call to set the captives free. I do not believe that a society based in communism adheres to these principals because it arbitrarily binds people to the will of the government. And I believe God loves us so much that he has given us a basic freedom of will. God doesn't force His ways on us. He loves us into choosing them.

Socialism will not change hearts. And that's where it has to begin.

Farewell, United States of America as it was intended to be.

God bless us all...God bless our leadership. Teach me how to pray in this new world.