Christian Anarchy: Paradigm or Paradox? by Steve Korenek

Publisher’s Note: As most everyone is aware, I am not a Christian nor an atheist yet I am surrounded by friends and neighbors who tend to this religionist disposition.  While I think some of the Christian beliefs in the system are used to excuse or rationalize the state, there is a small but growing number of Christians who are genuinely seeking freedom in this mortal coil and using their scripture to do so.  Steve is one of those. -BB

…And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free…

As a Christian Voluntaryist who resides in the land of the ‘fee’ and the home of the ‘slave’, I have a great interest in knowing the Truth. We all know that every person has their own selfish idea as to what true freedom and liberty consists of, and this equally true among Christians. I wish to examine the idea of Anarchist Christians, whether such a breed even exists on earth, or if the Neo-conservative ‘utopia’ purported is ultimately Heaven on Earth. “They hate us for our freedom,” was a past President’s mantra and to this I retort that there is no one more hopelessly enslaved than those that falsely believe they are free. Counterfeiting ‘government’ is big business as we already know. Please explain the labyrinth of Man-made Federal, State and Local ‘Laws’ that one must know in order to stay out of prison, and how that somehow makes us free? Orwell’s “Slavery is Freedom” rings a familiar tone. This author had a close brush with the law when such sent an item to Canada in exercising free commerce. Well, unbeknownst this was a no-no as such item is regulated under a not-so-well-known list of Federal restrictions regulating export. A knock on the door ensues and I was happily introduced to the DHS / Customs Enforcement. Fortunately, after many days of toil and nights of worry, this issue was resolved after a simple phone call to the agent. Why all of the drama you wonder? It all happened because I did not have firm grasp of the litany of Federal Laws requiring a license to export said item. If this is freedom, I consider it to be a pretty lousy version.

Others have not been so fortunate. Some are still staring at the innards of a Federal pen with 8 years left to go. And with special thanks to USA Inc. and the Corrections Corporation of America, there are still vacancies for all those who wish to visit.

It is my hope that we can all start this discussion with the basic understanding that Anarchy is synonymous with Abolitionism or Voluntaryism. This is the abolishing of the centrist State and that the virtue of self-ownership and accountability is the highest moral virtue. Let us at once dispense of the distorted view of Anarchy as representing nothing more than mass hordes of out of control thugs aimlessly throwing Molotov cocktails at innocents. I believe with every fiber of my being that anarchism is the only life path to follow as a believer in Jesus Christ. In fact going further, it is the ONLY philosophy that I can see that is consistent with Scripture. It is a fact that most of the Evangelical Christians in America vote on the Right side of the ticket. They will even vote for the mythical lesser of two evils. What kind of testimony is it when a Christian votes for a lesser, evilcandidate? What makes him an authority on evil? What credibility is there? What is being stated in essence is we will not steal, but will only kill. Is it ‘less’ evil to only invade two countries as opposed to three, believe that abortion is wrong, EXCEPT in instances of rape? Or even, pro-death penalty for that matter? It is better to let 3 guilty men go free, than to convict and execute one innocent man. Thanks to the disinformation arm of the Government, a large number of Christians now want the U.S. to invade Iran. Remember the command to love thy neighbor as thyself? Apparently, many modern Christ-followers do not consider Iran to be their neighbor and therefore does not apply. My Bible does not except us from this obligation and is applicable to all peoples of all religions and races. Christians would be a better testimony if they (we) were consistent in our dealings with other people. We may actually win others to Christ when we apply Anarchism to our lives.

In the Garden of Eden, The devil cast a semantic war of words upon the first man and woman. He employed a manipulative Neurolinguistic Programming-style, positive thinking approach in stating,” Yea, hath God said…? upon Eve. Within the final conflict of humanity we see that in order for folks to be deceived on a massive scale, there must be a war on the meanings of words and / or information. A twisting of words, if you will. The books ‘1984’ and ‘Brave New World’ proposed two different plans of attack. The former was a restricting of information and the latter was such an onslaught of information, so much so that one could not effectively wade through the vast ocean of words and definitions to make sense of it all.

Anarchy is one word whose definition has been demonized to such a degree that it is used to be synonymous with ‘chaos.’ Other words whose demonization come to mind?Discrimination, Extremism, Fundamentalism, Compound, Militia, Terrorism, Racist, etc.

All Voluntaryists would do themselves a great favor by studying a Book known as 1st Samuel Chapter 8 in the Old Testament as read from the Authorized King James Version. It is in this chapter that mankind singularly curses himself with Government when God had already given his people Self-Government / Ownership. They wanted to have a king ‘like the other nations’ and several times in two chapters it says that God was displeased with their desire for a King.

Georges Lechartier wrote that “The true founder of anarchy was Jesus Christ and … the first anarchist society was that of the apostles.”

Somewhere along the line the definition of Anarchy was flipped to mean ‘disorder’, when previously it simply meant to have self-ownership. My fellow believers with whom I am close with are die-hard Minarchists. They want the full benefits of self-ownership while all the while feeding the illegal Income tax system and some type of supreme government. Then out of the other side of the mouth, they cry, “Nullification! States’ Rights! Secession!” It’s like giving money to a drunk on the street. He smells like booze, he slurs his speech, but you still give him money. Why? Because, “He told me he needed something to eat. It’s not my problem if he spends his money on booze.” Then he drives a car, kills a family and you financed it! What they are not seeing is that taxation is slavery. Just try not filing the all-powerful 1040 form and see how many letters will start showing up in your mailbox. It is coerced taxation. A cursory study of 1st Samuel Chapter 8 would easily confirm for you that having a Monarchy was a curse, brought on by heady, impatient people upset with the Prophet Samuel’s sons. They already HAD the perfect set up, being self-governing in nature and the most lenient. Their impulsivity is the similar rush-job that resulted in the calumniation of the Articles of Confederation and ended with the deification of the Hamiltonian Constitution. HOW could you SAY that about the CONSTITUTION? Easily. Because this document either created the Federal Insanity we have today or has been powerless to prevent it.

There are Three General examples that describe Anarchy. For the sake of brevity, I will only examine one of these in this essay.

1. Do not initiate violence against anyone.

In The Gospel of Luke 3:14, it states. ”
And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.”

Now, fast forward roughly 2 millennia and examine this in the light of real world conflict. As Orwell so eloquently prosed, “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.” The modern LEO-Complex is the exact, polar opposite of Jesus’ command. The amount of violence that soldier-police employ is extreme, leading up to the expiration of the individual, and all in the name of ‘Officer-Safety.’ It is blatantly obvious that individuals within the modern Armed Forces are obligated to obey this command. But just because Jesus did NOT address the evils of the modern Military that maims, tortures, imprisons or kills different races around the world inthis verse; does not imply that a man (or woman) should even remain in a wicked and morally corrupt Armed Service. He starts with people, where they are, and then works onward from there. Christians are commanded to reprove the unfruitful works of darkness. Is it fruitful or loving to employ 20mm cannons against a mini-van of Iraqis, including children? If you have ever beheld the online account of this incident, it would not take to long wonder if such behavior is the fruit of the video-game generation? The two helo-pilots were hastily begging for permission to engage them, and did so with horrific lethality. Heartless.

If we were alive in the early 1900s, you could just ask the South African Boers what they thought of the British missionary Imperialist David Livingstone. A strong argument could be made that Livingstone, of all people, intiated conflict through his involvement in affairs of the Transvaal. His fellow Christian Boers were a rugged, peaceful, self-sufficient agrarian people who bravely fought the British Empire through the years 1899 – 1902. Boer President Paul Kruger said that, while they admired Livingstone for his dedication to the Missionary work for Christ, they disdained the fact that he was emboldening a nation which ended up committing of atrocities against those Boer Christians! It was the first genocide on record in the 20th Century, in the name of Conquest, and a travesty of the highest order. I believe the Boer Society were much closer to the Anarchist life than we are today, although they did have a President who was a genuine heart felt friend of the Afrikaan people.

These two general ideas below are two others that can be looked into at another time.

2. Fulfill all contracts entered into voluntarily to the letter.

3 Your self-ownership cannot be abridged without your consent.

A Stranger in a Strange Land: Living Stateless Within the State

How does Christian Anarchy measure in the real world?

One needn’t look any further than the Amish / Mennonite communities in Rural Amerika. Their wisdom is impressive on an unparalleled level, even their refusing to be photographed. While this may have changed, they used to consider any picture of themselves off limits and this certainly has certain benefits in a hyper-surveillance society as well. They freely exchange their goods and services in peace and assist each other in many ways. Now while it is not improbable that they have their own problems to deal with, we can conclude that they have a living, working model of living untethered to the State.

UNINCORPORATE – This means, get out of major metropolitan areas and move to more rural locations. The Reign of Terror which occurred in France from 1793 to 1794, did not affect those living in the countryside to the same degree as those residing in Paris. Learn to be self-sufficient; grow your own food, build your own home and be a frontiersman of sorts.

Followers of Jesus, please stop paying lip service to the state and confusing your allegiance to the state as being obedient to Romans 13. To the contrary, God himself has nothing good to say about those who will not stand against evil no matter what form it shows itself. It does come with a price, though, as many in ages past have found out. The author of the classic ‘Pilgrims Progress’ John Bunyan spent many years in jail (off and on for 12 years), all because he would not take a license to preach the Gospel. Every Voluntaryist, whether Christian or not, should develop a profound respect for Baptists such as Roger Williams who fought for the right to freely choose your own religion. Agnostics likewise owe these men a debt of gratitude as the set the tone in for freedom of conscience in Old America.

Christian Anarchism is a redundant statement. In closing, let’s remember for posterity the words of Lechartier.

“The true founder of anarchy was Jesus Christ and … the first anarchist society was that of the apostles.”