FDR's Progressivism: A Warning for Today

On Easter Sunday last month, I went to Washington D.C. with my family to see the cherry blossoms. While we were walking around, we found a new area dedicated to Franklin D. Roosevelt. It had a bunch of his quotes on the walls. Read this one, for an example:

FDR was a progressive, and it's easy to pick up his progressive-speech in these quotes. Scroll down to see what I mean... (Here's the quote again, with key words boxed in.)

Progressives often use the phrase "social justice" (see the red box), and when you hear them use that phrase, watch out. The true meaning of "social justice" is something very good; it's when you, your church, or any individual or private organization does something good in the community... e.g. helping the poor, giving people money, providing children's educations, etc.

When progressives say "social justice", they mean something very bad: it is when the government forcibly causes people to do these things, A.K.A. takes huge sums of your money to spread around as they see fit, A.K.A.: redistribution of wealth, A.K.A. socialism.

In order to appease to a moral society, progressives dress up "social justice" (their code word for a form of "socialism") to sound like a moral thing: using words like faith, hope, and love (see the blue boxes). There are progressives in our government today who would love to see our country become socialist. So, watch out! Listen to their words and don't let their code talk fool you... if they ever talk about "social justice", "economic justice", or any other kind of "justice", they're really talking about socialism.

Here's another quote from FDR: (Click on the image if you want to make it bigger.)

Again, FDR uses the word "MORAL" to appease to a morally concerned people. When politicians say their policies are matters of "morality", it should be a red flag. They could be progressives trying to convince you, a moral person, to buy into their socialist ideas.

Before believing any politician's claims about morality, we should pause and compare what they're saying to the Bible. Does it really match what the Scriptures teach us? Does God ever support the idea of a government that forcibly spreads wealth around? God does say we should give our money to the poor - willingly - but He never says that a government should take our money and give it to someone else. That doesn't sound like charity... that sounds like theft. (Don't the Ten Commandments say something about theft?)

More of the same... "MORAL" and "SPIRITUAL"... beware of those words coming from politicians! Double-check to make sure they're not speaking "progressive-ese"!

Now, read the following quote carefully... can you detect any "progressive-ese"? 
 

Here's my altered version of the photo.

I thought the most interesting thing here was the phrase "any hatred is a wedge designed to attack our civilization". Those are strong words! Any hatred against other people is unbiblical, but hatred against evil (AKA hatred of the sin, not the sinner) is completely supported by scripture. (Proverbs 24:24, Isaiah 5:20; there are also passages that say God hates sin.)

According to FDR, if someone were to hate evil (keep in mind - not hating the person who commits evil!), they would be "attacking" the civilization of America! And I'm sure any amount of righteous anger someone might have could be easily labeled by FDR (and other progressives) as hate... even if that's not what is truly in their heart.

Now it's your turn to translate "progressive-ese". Take a look at the phrases "civil rights" and "civil liberties" in the picture above. Why do you think FDR used those phrases in that context, and what do you think he meant by them? Please comment your answers below!

In conclusion, remember to keep an eye out for progressive speech by today's politicians... don't be fooled when they speak their socialist language!