Socialism isn't Christianity.

On November 2, the American people overwhelmingly voted down the overtly anti-Christian far-left agenda adopted by the Democratic Party leadership. Now the Democrats have laid out a scheme to win back morality voters by subverting Christian doctrine with the claim that Jesus was a socialist.

"No one can read the New Testament of our Bible without recognizing that Jesus had a lot more to say about how we treat the poor than most of the issues that were talked about in this election," Senator Hillary Clinton told a Tufts University audience of 5,000 on November 10. The former First Lady told the Boston-area audience of religion: "I don't think you can win an election or even run a successful campaign if you don't acknowledge what is important to people."

The strategy is to paint fiscal conservatives as un-Christian because they oppose using the state as a modern-day Robin Hood. Michael Kinsley wrote on November 7 in a house editorial for the Los Angeles Times, "Democrats seem oblivious to their platform's moral potency: innocent children suffering because their families can't get health insurance; platoons of young men and women dying in a war that didn't have to be; the pillaging of God's green Earth."

The Democrats overtly advocate a socialist agenda, which lives on today under new names, such as universal health care, the social safety net, and development assistance. And the theme is that leftists who advocate socialist government policies are generous, and those who refuse to redistribute the wealth are opposing Christian principles.

But the welfare state does not operate by the principle of moral generosity; it relies on a legalized form of theft (forcibly taking from some to give to others) and is driven by greed and envy. The welfare state breeds greed by offering wealth without work and generates envy by promoting class warfare.

The Christian principle of special consideration for the poor is a clarion call for the individual, not for the state. Jesus did not have the Good Samaritan in Luke's Gospel tell the injured man in the road to seek a government social worker. The Good Samaritan gave of what was his own willingly, not under the duress of the state. The welfare state actually encourages a spiritual laziness by implying that helping the poor is the responsibility of the state rather than a responsibility of the individual.

Consider the example of a small community of a few people to sharpen the moral clarity of this issue. Four men are stranded on a deserted tropical island. Two work hard to gather more pineapples and coconuts than they need. A third is unable to work because he has a broken leg, and a fourth is too lazy to work. While the working men have a moral obligation to share with the injured man, neither of the two who did not work have a fight to take by force what is not theirs.

To claim otherwise is to deny all right to property and to make the two working men slaves of the other two. The commandments "thou shalt not steal" and "thou shalt not covet" establish a right to ownership of property. If we can't own property, giving of ourselves becomes impossible--as does real almsgiving.

Back on the island, if the lazy man steals pineapples from the two working men by force, then he commits a crime and violates the commandment "thou shalt not steal." Socialism is the theft and redistribution of wealth through force, whether it's done for a society of four people or one containing millions. That's why all totalitarians, from Lenin to Hitler, adopt broad socialist policies in order to enslave society. The liberals are misleading people into believing that forcibly redistributing wealth, something that would be a crime if one individual did it to another, is a moral good and a foundation of "democracy."

In fact, the general election strategy of the welfare state is the whisper in the ear: "I'll give you more of the other guy's money than you'll pay in taxes." That electoral whisper of the welfare state is the ultimate "big money" influence skewing today's elections, and the prime reason why the welfare state cannot easily be dismantled. Welfare-state recipients always see the crumbs that fall to them from the welfare state.

Except for a few who make their entire living off the state, the claim that you'll be able to steal more than you'll have to pay is always a lie. In fact, much of the money that the federal government forcibly takes in the name of federal aid never leaves Washington, D.C. The U.S. Department of Education will spend $67.7 billion this year for "children," but a hefty proportion of that money will pay for the army of more than 4,600 employees of the federal agency, along with numerous buildings and associated office costs. The cut of the boodle for the welfare state bureaucracy can be in the 50 percent range. Additionally, much of the money the federal government gives to "individuals" to assist children are in the form of grants to state agencies, which take another share of the money in the form of bureaucratic costs. In the end, welfare state politicians only bribe us with part of the money they must first take from us. Working Americans will never receive as much as they'll pay to the tax man.

And therein lies the hope for ending the welfare state in America, so long as Christians are not fooled by this latest socialist propaganda barrage.