Should Christians be leftists?

Can leftism consistently be wed with a Christian worldview?

And is leftism gaining ground in the church and in the culture?

Scott Ray, we've got a fascinating new book we're going to do a review on by Phil

Christman called Why Christians Should Be Leftist.

You ready to rock and roll?

I'm ready. Let's get to it.

All right. So this is really more of an essay than it is a book. It's kind of a testimony of his

experience, which we'll get to. But before we dive into the case that he makes, what does the

author mean by leftism?

What are we talking about here?

Well, he distinguishes it from liberalism, which he's referring to political liberalism there,

as opposed to, and just to be clear for our listeners, the term classic liberalism is different than political liberalism,

which is different than leftism.

Okay.

The classic liberal tradition is what our founding fathers had in mind of individual rights,

free expression, limited government, you know, things, things like that that form, I think, sort of the heart and soul of political conservatism today.

Political liberalism is a different view of that, which takes a larger view for the state, heavier taxes, more services, things like what we might

call democratic socialism, which is we see in Scandinavia and parts of Europe, which is

a different, it's a different arrangement where taxes are higher, and services are more provided.

And there's less space for what we call mediating institutions that stand

between the state and the individuals. Leftism is political liberalism on steroids.

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