Was Jesus a Capitalist?

Recently, at a small college out west, a professor, Andrew Paquin, was fired. Bill Armstrong, a former United States Senator is the President of the college and fired Paquin because Paquin had students read works by Jim Wallis and Peter Singer. Singer is an atheist and an animal rights activist and a professor at Princeton University who very much promotes being gentle with the environment. Wallis is an Evangelical Christian who believes that the primary teaching of Jesus in the Gospels is caring for the poor. Radical stuff this caring for the poor.

Armstrong fired Paquin because he was teaching things not consistent with the philosophy of the college. Actually I really don't have an issue with this. Colleges have a right to set their own agendas and hire faculties consistent with those agendas. I tend to think that great education takes place when students are exposed to a wide range of thoughts from a wide range of writers, but that's just me. The school, and Armstrong, had every right to terminate Paquin.

What disturbs me is that in explaining this termination comes from this. Armstrong felt that by exposing students to these authors it was undermining the college's commitment to the free enterprise system and to quote:

“I don’t think there is another system that is more consistent with the teachings of Jesus Christ,” Armstrong told the Rocky Mountain News. “What the university stands for, among other things, is free markets.”

Free markets and capitalism are what are more consistent with the teachings of Jesus Christ than any other system?

In the early days of Pope John Paul II politically conservative people applauded the Pope in his attacks on Communism as a system which corrupted lives of people. They were, however, mortified when he later turned and claimed that Capitalism did the same thing. In essence he was saying that neither system was consistent with the teachings of Jesus.

I am not opposed to capitalism but Jesus was not a capitalist. He wasn't a socialist either. From a political perspective if Jesus spoke at the Republican Convention the paint would blister from the walls from the heat of his words to them. If Jesus spoke at the Democratic Convention the paint would blister from the walls from the heat of his words to them. The fact that political parties are able to recruit clergy to pander to their agendas does not indicate in any way that anyone is being faithful to the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus, in reality, was an economic anarchist. A thorough reading of the Gospel of Luke, which last I saw, was still in the Bible, indicates that Jesus had issues with money. His preferred use of money seemed to be something one got rid off.

Frankly, as a Christian, I'm getting tired of people in politics who take random quotes from the Bible to validate their opinions, opinions often inconsistent with the totality of the Gospel. This idea of pronouncing something "Christian" because "I found a verse" does not honor the Word of God, but frankly dishonors it by making it little more than little verses, placed in cookies, and served after chow mein.