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Christian anarchism

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Christian anarchism is the belief that there is only one source of authority to which Christians are ultimately answerable, the authority of God as embodied in the teachings of Jesus. Christian anarchists therefore feel that earthly authority such as government, or indeed the established church do not and should not have power over them. Many Christian anarchists are pacifists and oppose the use of all physical force, both proactive and reactive. They believe individuals seeking a path to freedom will only be guided by the grace of God if they display compassion for others and turn the other cheek when confronted by violence.

Its adherents believe this quest for freedom is justified spiritually and quote the teachings of Jesus, some of whom are critical of the existing establishment and church. They believe all individuals can directly communicate with God and will eventually unify in peace under this one God.

Many regard Leo Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You [1] (1894), read alongside the Bible, to be the founding text for Christian anarchism. Tolstoy called for a society based on compassion, nonviolent principles and freedom. Leo Tolstoy's work inspired Mohandas K. Gandhi's nonviolent resistance movement in the 1930's.

Christian anarchists have opposed war and other statist aggression through nonviolent tax resistance. Ammon Hennacy endorsed this principle. Some Christian anarchists oppose profiting from economic transactions and state capitalism. Many Christian anarchists, such as Tolstoy and Hennacy, were vegetarian or vegan.

The Fall of Rome

There are anarchical traces in much of the history of Christianity. For example, Gibbon felt that Christianity contributed, perhaps passively, to the fall of the Roman Empire:

"As the happiness of a future life is the great object of religion, we may hear without surprise or scandal that the introduction... of Christianity, had some influence on the decline and fall of the Roman empire." [2]

He goes on to suggest that military expansionism gave way to devotion and piety, and religious conflict replaced military conquest.

A Washington State University paper states that the Roman Emperor codified, and accommodated to the radical teachings of Jesus:

...the foundational Christian texts are not only anti-Roman ... but consistently dismissive of human, worldly authority. If Christianity were going to work as a religion in a state ruled by a monarch that demanded worship and absolute authority, it would have to be changed. To this end, Constantine convened a group of Christian bishops at Nicea in 325; there, the basic orthodoxy of Christianity was instantiated in what came to be called the Nicene creed [3], the basic statement of belief for orthodox Christianity. [4]

Christianity became the official religion of the Empire in c390. Within a century Rome was overrun by the barbarians, and the Empire began its end.

The Church

The Bible illustrates that the original Christians, shortly after His death, were living an anarchist-like way of life, with "no poor", and "total equality".

Other trends towards Anarchism

The Anabaptist Protestant sect was seen as anarchic in 15th Century Germany, at the time of the Reformation. Some of its adherents lived in communal settlements and vowed to overthrow the established Government. This led to extensive military conflict at the time.

Of particular note are two Latter Day Saint sects with Anabaptist and Restorationism affinities, the Community of Christ and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, both of which have attempted to live what is known as the "Law of Consecration and Stewardship" and "United Order of Enoch" on several occasions. Communitarian in nature and sharing some aspects of anarchism, the "Law of Consecration" was administered both on a local and church wide basis.

In the early 20th century the Community of Christ, under the leadership of Frederick Madison Smith, grandson of Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith Jr., laid the basis for research and development efforts toward gathering members of the Community of Christ to the Kansas City Missouri region ("the Centerplace") to build a cooperative commonwealth ("Zion") networking the cooperative economies of its federated local jurisdictions organised as "stakes". Raymond Zinser and Wilford Winholtz are notable Latter Day Saint advocates of the Cause of Zion.

The Doukhobors

The Doukhobors ("Spirit Wrestlers") are a radical Christian sect that maintain a belief in pacifism and a communal lifestyle, while rejecting secular government, the Bible, and the divinity of Jesus. The Doukabors fled repression in Tsarist Russia and migrated to Canada, mostly in the provinces of Saskatchewan and British Columbia, the funds for the trip were paid for by Quakers and the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. As an interesting historical sidenote, Canada was suggested to Leo Tolstoy as a safe-haven for the Doukhobors by anarchist Peter Kropotkin who, while on a speaking tour across the country, observed the religious tolerance experienced by the Mennonites.

Catholic Worker Movement

The Catholic Worker Movement, founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin on May 1, 1933, is a Christian movement dedicated to nonviolence and voluntary poverty. Over 130 Catholic Worker communities exist in the United States where "houses of hospitality" care for the homeless. The Joe Hill House of hospitality (which closed in 1968) in Salt Lake City, Utah featured an enormous twelve feet by fifteen foot mural of Jesus Christ and Joe Hill.

The Catholic Worker Movement has consistently protested against war and violence for over seven decades. Many of the leading figures in the movement have been both anarchists and pacifists. Catholic Worker Ammon Hennacy defined Christian anarchism as:

"...being based upon the answer of Jesus to the Pharisees when Jesus said that he without sin should be the first to cast the stone, and upon the Sermon on the Mount which advises the return of good for evil and the turning of the other cheek. Therefore, when we take any part in government by voting for legislative, judicial, and executive officials, we make these men our arm by which we cast a stone and deny the Sermon on the Mount.
The dictionary definition of a Christian is one who follows Christ; kind, kindly, Christ-like. Anarchism is voluntary cooperation for good, with the right of secession. A Christian anarchist is therefore one who turns the other cheek, overturns the tables of the moneychangers, and does not need a cop to tell him how to behave. A Christian anarchist does not depend upon bullets or ballots to achieve his ideal; he achieves that ideal daily by the One-Man Revolution with which he faces a decadent, confused, and dying world".

Anarchist Biblical Views and Principles

Many Christian anarchists hold a less literal view of the Bible and therefore do not feel obliged to follow the complete text as law, as some fundamentalist sects do. They base their beliefs on what they think are the simple principles and historic messages of Jesus, rather than obediently following every passage in the Christian Bible, unlike many Protestant churches. Leo Tolstoy and Ammon Hennacy also subscribed to this philosophy.

One of the key historic messages Christian anarchists, as well as some Christians, practice is the principle of nonviolence, nonresistance and turning the other cheek, which is illustrated in many passages of the New Testament but perhaps most clearly described in the sixth commandment, Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17, "Thou shall not kill".

Some Biblical literalists suggest there is complete compatibility between the Christian Bible and anarchism. They regard groups like the Amish and Mennonites, who even though they may not see themselves as such, as anarchists by their complete dedication to pacifism and opposition to participate in the state.

More recently, the anarchist wing of the libertarian movement has gained some followers from Christian fundamentalists, influencing them to study writings of historical anarchists like Tolstoy, Lysander Spooner and even Peter Kropotkin. This new group, who take the name Christian anarchists, also include anarcho-capitalists who are outside the historical anarchist movement. Unlike traditional Christian anarchists, many of these people are not strict pacifists. They believe the right to self defense exists for individuals, but do not believe the state should organise a military force for mutual self defense, as statists advocate. They argue war is essentially about power and domination in which the opposition is dehumanized through propaganda and nationalistic patriotism.

One challenge to the legitimacy of states and state control is found in Luke 4:5-8, during the Temptation of Christ, where the Bible quotes Satan as claiming dominion over all the nations of the earth and Jesus replies that not only will he not worship before Satan, but that God is the only authority to be "served". This passage does not directly refer to human rulers. However sometimes it may be necessary to disobey human rulers in order to obey God (Acts 4:19).

The most common challenge for the Biblical literalists is integrating the passage in Romans 13:1-7 where Paul defends obedience to "governing authorities." Christian anarchists argue that this chapter is particularly worded to make it clear that organizations like the Roman Empire cannot qualify as governing authorities. If it could, then, according to Paul, "they [Christians] would have praise from the authorities" for doing good. Instead the early Christians were martyred by the Roman government for doing good. Further, the "governing authorities" that are legitimate in the passage were never given the authority to make laws, merely to enforce the natural laws against "doing harm to a neighbor" in verses 8-10. This interpretation makes all statute laws of states illegitimate. It should also probably be remembered that Paul was himself a career criminal, whose belief that the self-sacrificing Christ was the only true emperor forced him to live from jail to jail, and beating to beating. He was, in fact, on his way to Rome in order to stand trial for sedition. While Paul's vision of resistance to human government is itself totalizing, then, and thus open to anarchist critique, his words in his letter to the Romans about the real good that human government can do despite itself should not be taken at face value and exaggerated as statist.

Various Biblical Passages Cited by Anarchists

  • Thou shall not kill (Exodus 20:13).
  • Do unto others as you would have others do unto you (Matthew 7:12).
  • Love your neighbour as yourself (Mark 12:31).
  • Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you (Luke 6:27).
  • If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also (Matthew 5:39-40).
  • My kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36).
  • We are to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).
  • To seek rule by man is to reject the rule of God (1 Samuel 8).
  • Christians struggle against governments, rulers, and spiritual wickedness (Ephesians 6:12).
  • Honest people are too busy making an honest living to accept political power, so only the corruptible will accept political power (Judges 9:7-15 The Parable of the Trees).
  • The devil controls man-made governments (Matthew 4:8-10).
  • The gentiles have rulers over them, but it shall not be so among Christians (Mark 10:42-45). (Notice that the word for rulers here in the Greek is archos. Therefore some say Christians are by simple deduction an-archos or in English anarchists).
  • Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. (1 Corinthians 15:24) - Much of the Bible's eschatological content says or implies that at the full inauguration of the Kingdom of God, authority will be destroyed, even if it is not a present possibility.

Quotes

  • All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do - Leo Tolstoy.
  • In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful - Leo Tolstoy.
  • The only people on earth who do not see Christ and His teachings as nonviolent are Christians - Mahatma Gandhi.
  • Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself - Leo Tolstoy.
  • In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you - Leo Tolstoy.
  • Oh, judge, your damn laws: the good people don't need them and the bad people don't follow them, so what good are they? - Ammon Hennacy.
  • An anarchist is anyone who doesn't need a cop to tell him what to do - Ammon Hennacy.
  • Being a pacifist between wars is as easy as being a vegetarian between meals - Ammon Hennacy.

Thinkers

Søren Kierkegaard

Søren Kierkegaard (1813 - 1855), a Danish philosopher and theologian who some consider to be the archetypal Christian anarchist for his theory that the claims culture and state make on an individual lie in opposition to the claim God makes on all people. Kierkegaard advocated perfect obedience to God even if that conflicted with the secular law and government. He has been compared to Max Stirner, the great individualist anarchist. Kierkagaard is regarded as the father of Christian existentialism.

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862) was an American author, pacifist, nature lover, tax resister and individualist anarchist. He was an advocate of civil disobedience and a lifelong abolitionist, who dreamt of earth becoming a utopia. Though not commonly regarded as a Christian anarchist, his essay Civil Disobedience (available at wikisource) is accredited with influencing some of Leo Tolstoy's ideas.

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) is notable for having written extensively on his anarchist principles, at which he arrived via his Christian faith. Notably his books The Kingdom of God is Within You [5], The Gospel in Brief and Christianity and Patriotism which critised government and the church in general. He called for a society based on compassion, nonviolent principles and freedom. Tolstoy was a pacifist and a vegetarian. His vision for an equitable society was an anarchist version of Georgism, to which he mentions specifically in his novel Resurrection.

Nikolai Berdyaev

Nikolai Berdyaev (1874 - 1948), the orthodox Christian philosopher has been called the philosopher of freedom and is known as a Christian existentialist. He does not advocate anarchic chaos but is a supporter of anarchism, even though he wrote that "the Kingdom of God is based on anarchy". He believed that freedom ultimately comes from God, in opposition to other anarchists such as Mikhail Bakunin who have suggested that freedom comes from nature.

Ammon Hennacy

Ammon Hennacy (1893 - 1970) is notable for writing extensively on his work with the Catholic Workers and at the Joe Hill House of Hospitality. He was a practicing anarchist, draft dodger, vegetarian and tax resister. His autobiography The Book of Ammon describes his work in nonviolent, anarchist, social action, and provides insight into the lives of Christian anarchists in the United States of the 20th century. His other books are One Man Revolution in America and The Autobiography of a Catholic Anarchist. Ammon Hennacy is also noted for several famous quotations dealing with force, law, and state powers which continue to inspire nonviolent anarchist action today.

Jacques Ellul

Jacques Ellul (1912 - 1994) was a French thinker, sociologist, theologian and Christian anarchist. He wrote several books against the "technological society", and some about Christianity and politics, like Anarchy and Christianity (1991) explaining that anarchism and Christianity are socially following the same goal.

Thomas J Haggerty

Thomas J Haggerty was a Catholic priest from New Mexico, USA, and one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Haggerty is credited with authoring the IWW Preamble, assisting in writing the Industrial Union Manifesto and drawing up the first chart of industrial organization. Haggerty was converted to Marxism before his ordination in 1892 and was later influenced by anarcho-syndicalism. His formal association with the church ended when he was suspended by his archbishop for urging miners in Colorado to revolt during his tour of mining camps in 1903.

Other Christian Anarchists

Criticism

Some say passages such as Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:13-17 and Mark 12:13-17 show that it is appropriate to submit to human governments, and that these have roles in restraining evil.

Although some would claim that these verses were only intended to shield Christians from going to prison. [6]

Organisations

See also

Reference

External links

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