City on a Hill

This is the sixth episode in our series on Political Visions and Illusions.

Socialism is the ideology that elevates communal ownership over individual ownership. It can be defined by its desire for economic equality. Liberals take exception to socialism because it seems to de-emphasize individual responsibility. The irony of socialism is that if a property is owned by a large number of people, then a few must be designated to care for, or govern it, and they then become privileged and the ideal of socialism becomes self-defeating. Marxism is a subset or expression of socialism that favors a revolution of the working class as the redemptive part of their narrative.

This and recent episodes have been heavily dependent upon this book, Political Visions and Illusions by David Koyzis. Come back next week. We will interview Dr. Koyzis!

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Music:

Little Lily Swing, Tri-Tachyon, Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

Sorry, Comfort Fit, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Germany (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 DE), https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Comfort_Fit/Forget_And_Remember/03_Sorry

We are delighted to have Dr. Todd Miles on the Podcast with us this week. We have a discussion about the roots of the revolutionary war and how the profound religious movement of the Great Awakening paved the way. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as we did.

There has been much talk about end times as we've gone through this pandemic. Things like a one-world government, the mark of the beast, and the anti-Christ have been on people's minds these past couple years.

We are so excited to have Dr. David Koyzis, author of Political Visions and Illusions, with us on the podcast today!

Socialism is the ideology that elevates communal ownership over individual ownership.

Democratism is the ideology that values above all else the rule of the people.

Nationalism is the first ideology to take community seriously. We do live with other people and they matter. Nationalism defines who is in and who is out. The greatest evil is to be ruled by someone who is not one of us.

Most of us are familiar with a nation/state, but many of the problems caused by nationalism have to do with a nation that is defined apart from the nation/state.

Christian Nationalism defines who is in and who is out based on Christianity. While this is understandable given the rich heritage our nation enjoys because of Christianity, it is also problematic and idolatrous.

Conservatism is the idea that we must "conserve" what we have. It opposes change for change's sake. Conservatism can be an outlook on the world or a wise caution against wholesale change. And, conservatism can be ideology agnostic -- Some may desire to conserve a vision of liberalism, while a conservative elsewhere in the world may want to conserve socialism.

The first ideology in The Political Visions and Illusions book is liberalism. Liberalism, in the classic sense, is as common to us as water is to a fish. We found it very helpful to think a little more clearly about our own political assumptions.

In this episode, begin to talk about how David Koyzis's book has helped us see that political ideologies are incomplete and as a result comprise a false gospel.