| | But as Arnold Toynbee has pointed out, this Marxist view denies the most crucial points, | | But as Arnold Toynbee has pointed out, this Marxist view denies the most crucial points, |
| | {{Cquote|The passage in the Acts represents the philanthropy of the primitive Christian Society as flowing from a God-given grace which was the fruit of a belief in the divinity of Jesus. In other words, the charity which is here depicted as moving the primitive Christians to go—in their mutual concern for one another's welfare—to the extreme length of sharing all their worldly goods is not a mere love of Man for Man (which is the limited literal meaning of the word ‘philanthropy’), but is a spiritual relation to which God is a party as well as His human creatures. In fact, this Christian Socialism is a practical application, on the economic surface of life, of the fundamental religious truth that the brotherhood of man is a consequence of the fatherhood of God - a truth which is driven home with special force by a religion which teaches that God is not only the Father and Creator of man, but also his Savior, Who has been incarnate in human shape and has suffered, and triumphed over, death.<ref>Arnold Toynbee, ''A Study of History'', Annex II to Vol. V, Part C (i) (c) 2, p. 585, ''Marxism, Socialism, and Christianity''.</ref>}} | | {{Cquote|The passage in the Acts represents the philanthropy of the primitive Christian Society as flowing from a God-given grace which was the fruit of a belief in the divinity of Jesus. In other words, the charity which is here depicted as moving the primitive Christians to go—in their mutual concern for one another's welfare—to the extreme length of sharing all their worldly goods is not a mere love of Man for Man (which is the limited literal meaning of the word ‘philanthropy’), but is a spiritual relation to which God is a party as well as His human creatures. In fact, this Christian Socialism is a practical application, on the economic surface of life, of the fundamental religious truth that the brotherhood of man is a consequence of the fatherhood of God - a truth which is driven home with special force by a religion which teaches that God is not only the Father and Creator of man, but also his Savior, Who has been incarnate in human shape and has suffered, and triumphed over, death.<ref>Arnold Toynbee, ''A Study of History'', Annex II to Vol. V, Part C (i) (c) 2, p. 585, ''Marxism, Socialism, and Christianity''.</ref>}} |
| | + | Widespread sloth in the former [[Soviet Union]] helped cause much poverty.<ref>[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255693/Last-pictures-life-iron-curtain-collapse-USSR.html Poverty, prostitutes and the long, slow death of the Soviet Union: Haunting pictures show desperate struggle to survive in last days of USSR, ''The Daily Mail'']</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/29/world/soviet-openness-brings-poverty-out-of-the-shadows.html?_r=0 Soviet Openness Brings Poverty Out of the Shadows], ''New York Times''</ref> A study performed in the former Soviet Union found that over 50% of the work force admitted to drinking alcohol while on the job (See also: [[Atheism and alcoholism]]).<ref>[http://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs201/projects/communism-computing-china/workethic.html Communism and computer ethics]</ref> In the former [[Soviet Union]], a popular joke was that the workers pretended to work and the Soviet Union pretended to pay them.<ref>[http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2015/08/you-pretend-to-work-putin-pretends-to.html You Pretend to work and Putin pretends to pay you]</ref> |