Christianity and socialism

To me, a wealthier country is a better country for poor people to live in, than a poorer one? The poor fare better in terms of money, health provision, education provision etc?
Again, I am willing to be corrected.

Elegran, it is also interesting that so many Churches are built on ground that was sacred to the ancients way before Christianity. We are not Christians and yet feel that the ground we live on has something 'special about it' as someone said the other day when we had a concert here- this place has got very good vibes (we live next to a very old Church in an old vicarage, built on a previous religious building).

It depends on the split, soon, between the rich and the poor.
It is not a good time to be poor in this country, as the rich have got richer and the poor have been penalised even more.
The government do not appear to me to be acting in a very Christian or socialist way.

*"Love thy neighbour, do unto others, " etc, however laudable, are not specifically exclusive tenets of Socialism except in the sense that it is underpinned by equality and justice for all.

I think that I agree with this. I dont think durhamjen, vampirequeen and Anniebach do?*

Soontobe please explain why you think I don't agree with this?

The socialists on this site don't seem too keen on humility, forgiveness and turning the other cheek!

Ana, can you give examples please?

I said that vampirequeen, when I didnt fully understand the term. It took me most of the thread to understand things.

But now I am trying to go back and reunderstand and understand what I was thinking at the beginning, and I am getting confused again!
So I think I was wrong to think that durhamjen, yourself and Anniebach didnt agree with it.

I hope that explains things?

Back in that time, there appears to have been buildings, as well as groups meeting in each others' houses, and down by the river etc

Of course there were buildings, Jesus was Jewish and taught in the temple (synagogue) as well as drive the moneylenders out of the temple because it was being used for commercial purposes.
The "house groups" you refer to, with the exception of the Last Supper, didn't start until after his death
The exception is of course his open air meetings, the Sermon on the amount etc, which were just that, public meetings, a bit like Speakers' Corner.
I sometimes think some Christian groups forget or ignore the fact that Jesus was a Jew of his day.

I would have said that there is no true, correct answer and that to say 'I am Christian therefore I must be a socialist' cannot be right in all instances.

Socialism has a very broad spectrum, and to take it to its extreme left would mean denying any religion.
To say that moderate Toryism means a person cannot be a Christian is equally wrong.

How much did the church, particularly the Catholic church, follow the teachings of Christ?

anniebach's post about the riches of the church in juxtaposition to the starving street child is so true and the power of the Catholic church to perpetuate poverty in the world by the denial of contraception is an outrage.

The concept of Christanity is a good one but I don't think its ideals can be claimed exclusively by the socialists.

Thanks for clearing that up soontobe

rosequartz , there are socialists who are atheists ,it doesn't follow one has to be both . For me I find socialism is closest to my faith. What I don't understand are those who are Christian and racist, support the death penalty, I really have trouble trying to understand how they can claim to follow the teachings of Christ. I just cannot accept reasons put forward for the vast wealth of the Vatican, and as you have said - forbidding contraception , this is not taking the life of a child , often it does take the life of the mother and leaves children without their mother , this is so against the Stations of the Cross where Christ whilst dying protects his mother