Jesus Would Have Despised Capitalism
By Josh B
There is a troubling trend among Christians today that threatens to dilute the word of God and his teachings. This trend is evident in a Guest Opinion submitted by Peter Crabb, a professor of economics and director of the Center for the Study of Market Alternatives at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, demonstrates this troubling development.
He is correct in his assertion that Christ's call is one of redemption and freedom, but from there his analysis falls flat.
True, Jesus was not a socialist in the conventional sense, after all, Jesus lived hundreds of years before the term was ever used. If Jesus of Nazareth lived today, he would have despised capitalism.
First, Jesus would have abhorred the for-profit healthcare system of today. He and his disciples used the gift of healing freely, rejecting payment. In fact, Acts 8:9-25 tells the story of Simon, a sorcerer who went to Peter and John while seeing them heal the sick with the Holy Spirit and offered them silver so he could gain this power and charge for these services. In response Peter gives an emphatic rejection saying, "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!"
Our very own Simon is that of the insurance companies who, through their profit seeking, balloon the cost of healthcare for every single American. That is, if they decide to cover you at all. In fact, current proposals for single payer healthcare show that not only would it be less expensive for the consumer but also cost less in taxpayer dollars than current subsidies that serve only to pad the portfolio of these charlatans.
Professor Crabb states that Jesus was in favor of this sort of change through the hearts of his followers, not coercion. Why then, in John 2:15, did he make "a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables." He did not try to change the heart of the money lenders; he took decisive and extreme action. As for this taking on a legislative structure, Mark 12:17 says “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s”
He also espouses the Parable of Talents as Jesus' celebration of investment. In doing so he shows he does not understand its clear warning against the hoarding of wealth. To use it in defense of a system that incentivizes this greed is sickening. For as said in 1 John 3:17 "If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person".
The Parable of Talents highlights the sheer magnitude of wealth that is hoarded by the richest among us. A talent in biblical times represents a year's wages. The hoarding of one was admonished, the equivalent of approximately $42,000 in 2026. Elon Musk alone has hoarded $831.8 billion, the equivalent of 19.8 million talents. If Adam still lived and earned one talent for every year he walked the earth, Elon would still have 19.4 million talents more than him.
Let us not forget that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, a city located in the West Bank. Currently Palestinians in the West Bank are being subjected to settler colonial violence at the hands of the Israeli government. A government whose munitions are built by American military industrial companies who profit from the death of millions. There is no coherent reading of scripture wherein Jesus would accept this. For as the Lord says in Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
There is no better verse to highlight the Biblical view of the wealthy than Matthew 19:24. “Again I tell you; it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”