I’m a Christian and a Socialist

Hi. I’m a Christian, and I’m a socialist.

I don’t speak for all Christians, and I don’t speak for all socialists. I’m more committed to being a Christian than being a socialist. The first invites me to love my neighbor. And politically, I find resonance with socialism.

This isn’t about partisanship. I believe in holding all parties accountable. I’m more concerned with particular values and how expansive we can be in caring for people collectively. I don’t always practice those values well myself, and I believe that people should hold me accountable too.

I like the vision of democratic socialism — moving away concentrating power in only a few people, or a small wealthy class, or one central leader who has enormous, sole power to determine the future or control/dole out most of the resources.

I don’t want us to be less democratic than we are. I want us to be more democratic than we’ve ever been.

I want workers to determine the vision for their labor and to be paid well.

I want people to have universal access to health care as a human right.

I want the public to have access to natural resources, rather than privatizing what is necessary for living.

I want the determination for the future to be more collective. I’m not talking about uniformity. And I’m especially not talking about a culture of uniformity-or-else.

I mean an ethic of care for the whole of society.

I mean loving our neighbors as ourselves.

–Renee Roederer