as a Christian, shouldn't i consider all my worldly wealth as more or less "on loan" from God, who provides me with all things, and be cheerfully willing to use my resources to help those in need? what should my purpose as a believer be in acquiring wealth, and how much focus should i put on it? speaking from what the scripture tells me, should i be in favor of policies that primarily help the rich, or the poor?
i just don't understand how the argument that capitalism - which is based on principles not just of earning what you work for, but of selfishness, covetousness & greed, because it makes no provision for the poor - is somehow a "Christian" economic system, but social welfare programs & using tax revenue to benefit all people are somehow "not Christian."
honestly, "democracy" is not at all Christian. it's based on the idea that 'the voice of the people is the voice of God' -- that majority opinion is always "right." democracy is the crowd choosing to crucify Jesus and free Barabbas. the form of government that the Bible seems to encourage is either oligarchy, with a king who fully submits himself to God, or come kind of tempered socialism or communism - like the early church did, pooling all their resources and helping all that were in need, but limiting that by recognizing who was truly in need, and who was able to provide for themselves.
the problem is that ancient Israel was not a "secular" government -- it was supposed to be an entire nation separated to God, and the church was not "secular" - it was believers separated out from the world. but America is a secular country - even if there's a majority of people who would check a box on a survey calling themselves 'christian' we are not a majority of actual believers, and our government recognizes freedom of religion, any religion, including atheism. we have to remember that our government is supposed to serve believers and non-believers alike -- which means that purely democratically, we can and often do get out-voted by the godless. so in democracy, the godless, if they have the most votes, set policy -- how is that the most "Christian" form of government? it's not; don't expect it to be.