Many people do not understand what some modern movements stand for when held up against the teachings of Christ. A good example can be found in the core beliefs of The Tea Party.
The major Tea Party beliefs are grounded in the writings of Ayn Rand, an atheistic philosopher and novelist who founded the philosophy called Objectivism, and in the tenets of Libertarianism, which owes much of its belief to Rand. In the past few years, Rand's writings have become best-sellers among conservatives and Tea Party participants. This is no happenstance. The Party's beliefs on individualism, government, and the responsibility of society toward the poor, minorities and the disenfranchised mirror the writings of Rand and Libertarianism.
For a Christian to accept the Tea Party's teachings, he/she must necessarily ignore Jesus' teachings on the poor and our responsibility toward our neighbor, insofar as government is concerned. The Tea Party would leave charity to churches, etc. with the full knowledge that, without governmental intervention, people would go homeless and hungry, and many would die. If you truly embrace Rand's writings, on which the Party's beliefs are built, you would believe there is no virtue in helping others at all: the highest virtue is making yourself happy by achieving what you can for your own gain.
I would suggest that many Christians who are motivated by anger and fear have been seduced into believing in the Tea Party without examining what its beliefs would mean for our nation. The Party's beliefs are grounded in selfishness. In Rand's major work, The Virtue of Selfishness, she teaches that the individual's self-satisfaction and achievement should be humanity's highest goal. These beliefs ignore the Biblical mandate for rulers to care for their people: the poor and orphaned, etc. They ignore Jesus' call to "Love Your Neighbor as Yourself." Rand believed that Jesus' teaching that one must love, help, and live for others was..." a contradiction that cannot be resolved." In other words, only living for personal gain is moral. I really do not think many Christians who have bought into the Tea Party's rhetoric have truly examined it, where it comes from and what it means.
If you do not understand the foundation on which a movement is built, you do not understand the movement. I, along with many Christians, believe this is the case with The Tea Party and many of its Christian adherents. Thomas Jefferson thought we needed an "informed electorate." If you belong to The Tea Party and have not read and understood the writings of Ayn Rand, you are not informed. Unless you read her philosophy and are able to comprehend its groundwork for Libertarianism and The Tea Party, you do not understand the core beliefs espoused by The Tea Party. Until you comprehend these things, you will be unable to fully understand that, when critically examined, the foundational beliefs of The Tea Party are the most difficult of all current major political influences in America to believe in and be true to the teachings of Jesus..
Sincerely,
Curtis Rivers
Adairsville