Christian Anarchists

It was shared by my FB friend Peter Kozma, and originally posted by someone using the name Libertarian Christian. The latter accompanied it with this: "But Peter and the apostles answered, 'We must obey God rather than men.'" Acts 5:29.

Those anarchist friends of yours are ignorant. And you're right: Their apparent premises do seem to suggest some very good questions.

I suppose some materialist anarchists might argue that religious habits of mind -- submission to a deity -- may lead believers to submit to authority in this world as well. I occasionally played that game myself, in both my orthodox Objectivist and cultural Bolshevik incarnations. But it seems unlikely to happen if one grasps the distinction between the City of Man and the City of God. Moreover, have we not learned by now that atheists in control of the City of Man are capable of crimes and atrocities undreamed of in the Christian Age?

WTM

On Aug 22, 2013, at 10:45 AM, Tony Pivetta wrote:

You found it on Facebook? You travel in more Christian-friendly circles than I. 

My anarchist FB friends inform me it's a logical contradiction for a professed anarchist to embrace the Christian faith. Apparently, the Church qualifies as a monopolist of violence. Odd. I don't recall Swiss guards or Jesuits appearing at my door for failure, e.g., to drop my Sunday offering in the collection basket.

I suppose it raises an interesting philosophical question. May I consent to my own enslavement? If hewing to a third party's moral code negates the very possibility of consent, what do these aggressive secularists propose to do about it? Shutter the churches to force me to be free?

I seem to recall the former rulers of Russia conducting an experiment along those lines. Things didn't work out too well--for either Christians or secularists. 

Tony