Why do Evangelicals Persistently Misunderstand and Misrepresent History?

https://richbitterman.com/2025/11/14/why-60-percent-of-young-americans-prefer-socialism/

Bitterman laments the trend toward socialism among the youth. For the record, I contend America's contemporary decadent and consumerist youth are not in fact looking for socialism at all, but social democracy along the lines of what we see in Northern Europe. While those models may have socialist characteristics they are still capitalist and market driven societies with class distinctions and private ownership - and therefore dismissed by actual and ideological socialists.

But we already know Bitterman is completely off base when he presents a header photo of a concentration camp tattoo. He's mixing apples and oranges and clearly out of his league when it comes to examining these topics. He's simply echoing the kind of superficial and phoney sensationalism that appears on outlets like FOX. In other words while he seeks to shepherd his readers as a pastor, he is merely a tool and dupe being manipulated by political and economic forces that are happy to use him.

He doesn't address the propriety of whether things like public utilities, health care, and natural resources should be in the hands of for-profit investors and what this communicates about social cohesion, let alone the Utilitarian and even Social Darwinist assumptions that undergird such capitalist models.

Capitalism has lifted billions out of poverty? That's quite a claim but far too simple to be taken at face value - or even seriously. As it lifts many out, it drives many more into poverty and creates other problems which are becoming acute as we move through the 21st century - problems that are leading the world to instability and war.

One need not be a fan of Mao Zedong (and while one can point to his disastrous policies and brutality which resulted in the death of millions), to acknowledge there are some Chinese that still appreciate him. How is this possible? For some of them, life had been so bad before 1949, that despite the disasters of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, the net result of Maoism was a positive. They had work and food and the problems facing China were so great, that they're willing to forgive his colossal errors and inhumanity. The previous century had been nothing short of a nightmare for China and its population. It's not a defense or justification, but simply an argument that for some people in other contexts (that pampered isolated Americans cannot grasp) these questions are viewed through a different lens.

Bitterman's article simply relies on demagoguery and not a little sleight-of-hand. To be honest, it's an article unworthy of a Christian pastor. Again, it strikes me more as the product of a political operative or propagandist.

And again, the inclusion of Nazi Germany in his appeal just demonstrates Bitterman doesn't even know what he's talking about. He's feeding on the comic book history of the American Right or at best the tripe produced by the likes of Bill O'Reilly. Yes, I know - National 'Socialism' and all that. It's hard to take such people seriously.

Do universities teach anti-Christian notions? Yes, they teach the ideology of the culture and while American Christians were (for several generations) able to stave off the implications of their compromise and syncretism, the rotten seeds produced an equally rotten harvest and the social consensus collapsed. Today it's in flux as society tries to reconcile the various tensions and contradictions that exist between societal welfare and an absolutized (and thus self-destructive) psychologized individualism wed to an ideology of rights.

As far as social media, simplified slogans, ridiculous detached-from-reality celebrities, activists, and disinformation - these accusations must also be levied against the Right. Many of the so-called socialists the Right condemns are middle class or wealthy people that have no interest in giving up their standing or status. In some cases they're simply calling for some moderation and what is really more a kind of patronage as opposed to genuine socialism. We could have a real discussion about these things and what the Bible says about money, ethics, and how the Church should respond to all these things, but I just don't think Bitterman is interested - and I wonder if he's even capable? This is not a dig at his intellect or education but rather where his heart is. The issues are not unrelated. The kind of emotionalism and warped perception of reality he exhibits in this melodramatic harangue demonstrates a kind recalcitrant attitude and allegiance that is resistant to Scriptural argument and reasoning - let alone its iconoclasm vis-à-vis the world, its eschatological perspective, epistemology, and ethics.

I cannot but roll my eyes when he appeals to Cuba or Venezuela as he's evidently clueless as to the context of these stories and events. Even the history of Cold War Eastern Europe is a little more complicated - all the more when one considers how the Church interacted with these regimes and (in some respects) flourished under them. There's a kind of flourishing that has emerged in the decades since (within the context of Western financial support and ideological infusion), but at the same time some will bitterly admit that liberal capitalism and the culture it produces hasn't always been the best for either these societies or the Church in them.

If Bitterman can't see the covetous nature of the Capitalist system and how Wall Street works, then there's nothing more to say - he's simple and ignorant. I truly feel pity for those who sit under his teaching. I'm not trying to be mean spirited or insulting. Again, there's a moral component to such foolishness and corruption. He's deceiving God's people and twisting God's Word and history in the process of doing so. I'm sure he's sincere and thus I sincerely hope he repents and goes back to square one.

Biblical Stewardship is not Capitalist stewardship and its reliance on exploitation and usury. Socialism isn't the answer either but because Bitterman has allowed himself to be shaped by Right-wing media and has allowed them to frame these issues and debates, there's no hope of a Biblical discussion. He's stuck in what is really just a stupid and phoney dichotomy.

He twists various passages in the New Testament anachronistically reading modern ideology into them. The point of Acts 5 is not private property - the New Testament doesn't even address private property under the assumptions Bitterman wishes to promote. The same is true in his use of 2 Thessalonians 3. He's making Paul say something that he did not intend to say - even while the import of the passage (ironically) is one of many that suggests a Christian ethos completely at odds with the kind FOX-Trumpian flag-waving Christianity that dominates the Evangelical scene.

In other words, Bitterman makes it say something it doesn't say even while he ignores what it does say.

He misuses 2 Corinthians in a similar fashion - ignoring what the New Testament says about the state and taxation. He takes 1 Samuel and divorces it from redemptive-history and instead finds American republicanism therein - completely misunderstanding the nature of the Mosaic Theocracy. Once again, I appeal to Perchik's hermeneutic from Fiddler on the Roof wherein he absurdly (and comically) extracts that the lesson from the Jacob-Laban episode is to never trust your employer. It's ridiculous and meant to be taken as such but I find the American Christian Right employing such methods and arguments, and building exhortations off them in a similar way and on a daily basis.

Bitterman is right - no political system can can bring spiritual change.

But I contend neither he, nor his allies, nor the people in his church actually believe that statement. Their actions indicate otherwise and testify to the fact that they very strongly and passionately believe that a so-called Christian state can (through legislation and coercive pedagogy) transform hearts and create a sacral society.

What does one do with such people who consistently deceive themselves and fail to connect their motives and professed statements to their actions?

Yes, Christ is coming and when He does, all the Socialist governments will topple as will Wall Street and Capitalism. They're all the Babylon systems of the world. Can we agree on that?

Unfortunately it would seem we cannot because Bitterman and those like him can't let go of their idol - the American Empire and all the hubris, power, and mammon it represents. He's worried about his children being in chains? How sad, they can't see the shackles of mammon-gluttony that already define how they are and how they live, and worse, these same shackles (which they actually love) lead them to cheer on and support the war machine that enriches them and threatens to destroy anyone that resists. I refer not just to existential threats of which there are few but to the mere threat of inconvenience or the possibility of having to pay a higher price for a consumer good. They are willing to kill over these things and as such they reveal the core problem which is idolatry.

Socialism is a bankrupt ideology to be sure but this self-indulgent and decadent solution offered by Bitterman is a cure worse than the disease, and its more dangerous because it masquerades as being Biblical when it's nothing of the kind and is in reality a corrupting distraction.