#Occupy Love: Love is the Governor

I really have resisted the temptation to make political statements on what has intended to be a spiritual, Christian blog. But with all of the "Christianity" being thrown around regarding the #Occupy demonstrations - those who claim Jesus was a "communist" and that "Jesus stands with the 99 percent," and "capitalism is inherently immoral," and some kind of justification of this event, I just have to say I believe Jesus and God would be completely against this "class warfare" thing, and would call out the 1 percent for their greed and the 99 percent for their envy.

I'll start with three words that are the foundation of this post, and of Jesus' teachings - "God is love." (I John 3).




God is infinite Love. There is an endless supply of love, and all of God's children (the 99 percent AND the 1 percent) have the ability (nee, the responsibility) to express that love to everyone. When we express love to everyone, our supply is never exhausted - we are given more Love, more blessings to share.

I believe, based on that, that many of these people are blaspheming and distorting what Jesus taught and lived.

Those who have claimed that Jesus was a communist have it completely wrong. He never forced anyone to give up their wealth or goods - and he never told his followers to give their goods to the government so it would "distribute the wealth" to those in need. He taught the simple premise of Love. When we, as children of God, express Love, we are showing compassion for everyone. God always encouraged us to "be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1), but never said "only to a point." God (and Jesus) made us all good - in His image and likeness as infinite good - see Gen. 1 - thus He expected us to be good and loving and express that love to our fellow man. Once we were fruitful and multiplied the blessings He gave us and we took care of ourselves and our families first, God then expected us, as infinitely good and loving children of His, to then WILLINGLY give our blessings to others who are in need.

Here is where the big difference is - God supplies with INFINITE blessings. So once we share our blessings with others who could use them, He blesses us further by giving us MORE blessings because we expressed His love. The supply is infinite, so there are no limits to the blessings we can receive. Those who are saying Jesus was a "communist" lose track of one thing - a man-made government (as opposed to the divine government of God, Love) is finite - it cannot provide more blessings. It can only take one's blessings by force and redistribute it; it does not create new ones out of the blue. Why? It's missing divine, infinite Love.

Jesus never forced anyone to give up their goods and follow him; he just stated that if one believed him and what he taught, and wanted to know about the kingdom of heaven, one would need to give up his goods. If he didn't, Jesus didn't go to the local government and demand that the person expressed love to others. He just went about his way. Some went with him, but not everyone believed him, or even understood him. He did not condemn any of them or say they were too excessive in their goods. He loved them, but stated that man cannot serve two masters (God or wealth, goods) and left the decision up to each person to decide. That is NOT communism. To believe Jesus would approve of forced "redistribution" would be to make Jesus a despotic king. He believed that everyone was inherently good (even his most ardent enemies) and would make the right decision ON HIS OR HER OWN. He believed and knew that every person was a loved and loving child of God and when given the opportunity, more often than not everyone would do the loving thing for themselves and for others. He knew the man was "self-governed" - that is, governed only by God, and thus did not need to answer to a man-made government for doing the right thing by others.

To impose the "right thing" through government would be putting man in shackles and making him a slave. But man was made free by God and only serves Him - not man.

By extension, then, capitalism is NOT immoral. Capitalism - at least in its purist form, assuming that all who participate are good, loving children of God - is a free market, which mirrors the freedom that man has to express God's goodness in infinite ways. We are asked - actually, commanded - to be fruitful and multiply (our blessings) - that is, to build spiritual capital. As we build up our stores of love and grace and goodness, we are asked not to store them for another day, but to share our blessings with others. Why? Because God, again, is infinite. We don't need to store up the blessings we have, because He will give us more. So capitalism gives us the freedom to express His goodness, knowing that we also have the ability to accumulate more spiritual capital. When we do His work - namely, express all of His qualities - we are rewarded continually.

Communism, on the other hand, limits our ability to receive blessings and our ability to express and share them because they are taken away by force. Communism is not love - and it is certainly not infinite. There isn't an infinite supply of money, so those who "share" aren't rewarded with more blessings to share later. Communism assumes a finite supply and tries to make everyone in the system equal in result. Capitalism, on the other hand, establishes equal OPPORTUNITIES to express goodness and blessings. As children of God, we ALL have access to the blessings and goodness - no one of us has any more opportunity than another. Our results are dependent on the choices we make with the opportunity we have. Jesus showed us the "straight and narrow way" in order to be prosperous; any choice we make that takes us off that path will lead us into darkness and will limit our prosperity (the belief that an individual's prosperity should be limited is one of those choices that is sinful and leads us off that path - that sin is envy, or covetousness).

As for God and Jesus standing with the 99 percent, I believe that is wrong too. God and Jesus loved everyone - and Jesus didn't see people as being against each other. He saw us all as brothers and sisters, children of God. He would not have stood with one group of people against another; he might have called out the demons that were present - greed, envy, etc. - but he would have called the 99 percent and the 1 percent together and would have preached on the mount about the virtues of loving one another - even perceived "enemies." He would call out the greed and envy that were obviously splitting up the population and would have exposed them for all to see, then he would have encouraged everyone to get in touch with that divine Love that we all possess, and to share it openly with each other so that everyone can be prepared to receive more.

Love is infinite. God is Love. Love is all, and we as children of God express that Love always. Let us remember as these protests go on, that the Christian approach is to love one another always and to encourage each other to take advantage of the opportunity to gain and express the blessings that God gives us.

And put the signs down. It's time to Love. Not 1 percent, not 99 percent, but 100 percent.

Let's 100 percent Love. Let us #Occupy Love.