Christianity is Socialist?

This is what Hugo Chavez says in the following news story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070302/ap_on_re/religion_in_the_news

"Christianity is essentially socialist, so no one - no Christian, no
Catholic - should be alarmed," said Chavez, who was once an altar boy
and says his brand of socialism will not copy Soviet or Cuban communism
despite his close friendship with Fidel Castro.

The big question is of course is the message of Jesus a socialist
message? This could easily be argued as a resounding yes if certain
verses and words were lifted out of context and used to support this
idea. This would be using such lines as:

- The poor have good news (Matthew 11:5)

- "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to
the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."
(Mark 10:21)

- For this ointment could have been sold for more than three
hundred denarii and given to the poor." And they scolded her. (Mark
14:5)

There are others but what is the common message of the Bible when it
comes to the poor? That we are, out of Christian compassion, help those
who can not help themselves. Who are those that can not help
themselves? The early church was clear that we are to help widows and
orphans. What do these two types of people have in common? They are
poor due to events outside of their control. These we would term
righteous poor. These are people who need some help for a time, not
because they have done things in their lives that have caused them to be
poor but because someone died.

Contrast that with the unrighteous poor, those who are poor because they
have done something that had created their lack of wealth. These would
be addictions, unhealthy behavior, or general laziness. Should wealth
be taken from the righteous and given to the unrighteous? Does this
match up with the character of God? No. God tells us that we reap what
we sew and instructs us to work diligently and effectively. This is not
accomplished under a full leftist socialism structure. This type of
structure will take from those who are working and give to those who are
not. If those that are not working are righteous, it should be given
freely, always with the goal of helping those in need get out of their
situation, not perpetuating the issue by simply giving them money.