Column: Jennifer Vogt-Erickson, My Point of View

I believe in personal responsibility, and I believe in helping others who are less fortunate. Both are deeply rooted in my Christian faith. In the U.S. political arena, though, that seems like a bipolar position. Why is that?

I also wonder at the hold that Karl Marx and Ayn Rand have on the American psyche, which is a predominantly Christian landscape. One is associated with pure communism, the other with pure capitalism. Though they were both atheists, one of their ideologies shares some values with Christianity. I would think that would have more political traction here, but the opposite is true.

Karl Marx’s ideology has been dismissed in the U.S. partly because of his hostility toward religion. I remember hearing people talk about “godless communists” before the fall of the Iron Curtain. “Godless?” my 7-year-old self shuddered at the thought. My overactive imagination produced apocalyptic visions of nuclear war and/or brainwashed Soviet Young Pioneers taking over my elementary school after burning down my church.

On the other hand, Ayn Rand has been embraced by some prominent conservatives and libertarians despite being equally critical of religion. Her novel, “Atlas Shrugged,” has made a comeback over 50 years after its first publication. I read it on my parents’ rooftop during a summer vacation because a lot of my college friends were reading it, and I wanted to even out my tractor-driving tan. As you might guess if you have read or beheld the book, I got a superb tan. And while I think Galt’s Gulch is a flimsy mirage fabricated on self-conceit, it is alluring in many ways, at least until the toilets need scrubbing.

The irony is that Karl Marx’s communist manifesto has similarities with Christianity that are napalm to most politicians, of any party. (Socialism/ Communism/Marxism= Scary bad.) A verse from the New Testament that fits his ideology clearly is this: “All that believed were together, and had all things in common; and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men, as every man had need.” (Acts 2:44-45)

Compare it with Marx’s mantra, “From each according to their ability, to each according to their need.”

In the book of Acts, some early Christians were living in communities that we might call communes today. On a larger scale, it would be a communist system. Few Christians have stuck with that kind of lifestyle, especially after Christianity was co-opted by the Roman Empire (and many states since then), although some have continued to practice it. I admire Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement, but I would have trouble doing it myself. What it sadly boils down to is that I like my stuff more than truly living out my Christian ideals.

In contrast, Ayn Rand’s thinking does not appear to mesh at all with Christian principles. Rand did not consider altruism to be a moral duty or a virtue. The virtue she espoused most was maximizing one’s self-interest, and unrestrained capitalism was her ideal. This would help me justify keeping all my stuff, but I haven’t found anything in the Bible to endorse her philosophy yet. Not only is the Bible pre-capitalist, it’s heavy on altruism and light on accumulation of anything but treasure in heaven. Love your neighbor, love your enemies, care for the poor and the sick — I would have to excise most of my Bible to get around it.

While I haven’t figured out why any politician who professes to be Christian would be enamored with Ayn Rand, I think the conservative case is solid for personal responsibility. The Bible clearly admonishes people to do what is in their power to care for their own. For example, “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8)

Thus, both look after oneself and look after others, if one is trying to live by Christian principles. But should it be the work of the government to promote both of these things? This is sticky.

We have separation of church and state, yet we also live in time when many Christian politicians are publicly faithful. Conservative politicians often use explicitly religious arguments to condemn abortion and same-sex marriage, and they champion personal responsibility, but I don’t see them or their liberal counterparts citing their faith as a reason to strengthen Medicare, Medicaid and welfare, even though these programs reflect Christian ethics.

Hubert Humphrey, the late senator and vice president from Minnesota, stated in one of his last speeches, “It was once said that the moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”

This so-called liberal sentiment telegraphs the Gospel of Mark. I would like to see more Christian politicians pursuing this as a matter of their faith, and not cower to charges of Marxism. There is plenty of middle ground.

Albert Lea resident Jennifer Vogt-Erickson is a member of the Freeborn County DFL Party.