Charisma Christian Academy
Offering Christian Education from Preschool to 6th Grade.

McCain vs. Obama

Pastor Jun-Jun Arnecillo
Teaching Pastor
Singles/College Minister

Life Group:
Singles/College/Career
Fridays at 8:00PM
Call 909-941-0556 for more details.

In a few months from now, a historic election in the U.S. is about to take place.  It might partially prove that racial barriers in American politics are things of the past.  This is also a significant election for American Christians.  As a matter of fact, Rick Warren, a popular American pastor, recently hosted a forum for the two major presidential candidates, where they were given equal opportunities to express their worldviews and moral / religious sentiments.  Both candidates seem to represent two opposing political theories or worldviews.  I am referring to capitalism and socialism.  Although both candidates generally favor capitalism (at least at the outset), one candidate seems to have a socialist leaning, as he supports at least some (if not all) of the features of socialism.

Such theories address the following question: “how can we best manage the economy of our society”.  A capitalist favors market-based and commodity-producing economic system that seems to be more conducive to sustainable economic growth and productivity, while it seems to inevitably exploit the working class through the unjust distributions of wealth, income, opportunities, and power.  On the other hand, a socialist cannot swallow the immorality of such kind of exploitations that seems to result from such an economic system, in spite of its potential contributions to economic growth and productivity.  So, a socialist aims to introduce socio-economic reforms as remedies to the moral flaws of capitalism.

Are sustainable economic growth / productivity and equal distributions of wealth mutually exclusive? Is it even possible to place equal value on both of them? A capitalist tends to be a realist.  So, for a capitalist, they are mutually exclusive in the real world.  On the other hand, a socialist tends to be an idealist.  So, for a socialist, there must be a way to equally distribute the wealth and, at the same time, effectively achieve sustainable economic growth and productivity.

A Christian can either be a realist or an idealist.  Of course, from the standpoint of Jesus, we ought to favor what will benefit the poor.  So, equally distributed wealth appears to be more favorable.  However, from a historical standpoint, such a political aim tends to destroy the economy or generate oppressive political regimes in the long run.  Of course, that does not rule out the possibility that an idealist president will successfully achieve what appear to be mutually exclusive political goals.  On the other hand, as for Reinhold Niebuhr, one can state that such heavenly goals are unattainable in an inherently unjust world.  The major issue for this coming election is a matter of value.  So, no amount of empirical research can settle the issue.  Responses to such an issue depend on what individuals ultimately value.  A Christian must not treat this election as an issue about race or popularity.  A Christian, who is also a responsible citizen, must be critically engaged in the extremely complex dialogues that aim to determine the relatively attainable goals for our society (considering our current economic conditions and our long-term goals) and who between the two is more suited for attaining such goals.