My favorite bible verses are Acts 5:1-11 in which god smites two kulaks for not giving all their property to the commune they joined.
Turns out lying to your comrades and hoarding wealth is a really bad idea.
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Best part is the apostles being like “dude why the fuck even sell your house if you’re going to pull this shit? You’re not just lying to everyone here, you’re lying to God.” Then the radlib dies. 💀
Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.
Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.
-James, 5:1-6
The early Christians were persecuted by the Roman Empire because they directly threatened the Roman’s commerce model and also because they started blowing a lot of imperial shit up.
Acts 2:
44 All who believed were together and held everything in common, 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and distributing the proceeds to everyone, according to their need.
Acts 4:
34 For there was no one needy among them, because those who were owners of land or houses were selling them and bringing the proceeds from the sales 35 and placing them at the apostles’ feet. The proceeds were distributed to each, as anyone had need.
One of my earliest forays into leftism was a friend telling me about Black theology in the US, how it was inextricably linked with liberation theology in LATAM, and how the prosperity gospel was also very much from the same essence, juxtaposed against the others to show how globalization infused these different reactions to capital. Different material realities for different people, all operating within the same system.
