Is Capitalism Scriptural?

Chad Hovind claims so. Here is one paragaph which says something on where he gets his ideas about Christendom and theological coherence from:

When Gov. William Bradford, of the Plymouth Colony, switched to a free enterprise system that he extracted from the Scriptures, productivity and generosity were released. Free enterprise resulted in the bounty of our first Thanksgiving. (If a group of zealot Puritans can’t make socialism work, why would we think that Washington D.C. could make it work?)

Chad omits to say what they switched from. Not quite, he says it in a parenthesis indirectly.

But if the zealot Puritans could not make socialism work, that means they tried. And if they tried, that means, in their case, they had a spell of thinking it Scriptural. And if they had a spell of thinking it Scriptural, why shall we trust the Capitalism they came up with after it would be excellent Theology?

Now, Chad Hovind linked to an article on another site. Here is what that site says:

After a brief experiment with the “common course,” a sort of primitive agrarian communism, the colony quickly centered around private subsistence agriculture. This was facilitated by Bradford’s decision to distribute land among all the settlers, not just members of the company.

In other words, no, they did not go from "socialism" to "capitalism". They went from kibbutz Communism to Distributism.

Had Bradford distributed land ONLY to members of the company and asked other settlers to try to get wage paid labour positions with those who had land, now, THAT would have been Capitalist.

So, Gilbert Keith Chesterton vs Chad Hovind, 1-0, either in history or in political terminology or in both.

And I certainly do agree that Distributism is Scriptural. If even a Puritan (like Bradford) tells you so, why should a Catholic doubt?

That doesn't mean kibbutz Communism is unscriptural. It only means that it takes greater zealots than Puritans (or by now even Jews) to make it work. We know their names from history, they are called Benedictines, Culdees, Cistercians. In other words, monks. Oh, not forgetting, a bit further East they are following rule of St Basil. That kind of communism existed for instance in Russia UP TO 1917 or following years, when "Communism" as in Bolshevism destroyed it.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre University Library
Vigil of St James Apostle
24-VII-2015

Chad Hovind's article:

TheBlaze : Capitalism is not just a Good idea; It’s God’s Idea Dec. 4, 2013 11:36am by Pastor Chad Hovind
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/capitalism-is-not-just-a-good-idea-its-gods-idea/

Article on "History":

History : William Bradford
http://www.history.com/topics/william-bradford

As a side note, regarding pre-industrial life spans, 1590-1657 = 70 years. As I have found, this is not untypical, though on the higher edge.