Jesus was an anarchist May 12, 2010

The following is an article I wrote in 2005 for the now-dead University of Washington campus publication “Right Turn”.

Christian Compassion vs. The State

Why Jesus was an anarchist

Let me tell you about my favorite bible story.  It’s the one in the book of John where Jesus is presented with a prostitute.  Upon learning that someone in his society was living in such sin, he immediately launched a letter-writing campaign, started gathering signatures, and marched down to the capitol to let the Roman governors know that he and his constituents would not endure loose women in their midst.  I like this part of the New Testament almost as much as the part where Jesus petitions for a progressive income tax to help out the poor and downtrodden Israelites.

We don’t need to read the Bible to know that this is how Jesus lived — we can infer it from the work that modern-day followers of Jesus have carried on in his name.  We have the Christian Coalition, which works hard to lock up flag-burners everywhere, ensure all school children pray to God daily, and keep the rights of homosexuals in check.  And then there is the large Christian left who demand state handouts in the name of Altruism.  It’s not hard to see what political implications Christianity has for a large majority of Americans.

Time out.  For those of you who’ve spotted my errors in the preceding paragraphs, good for you.  Anyone who has actually read the New Testament knows (or should know) that Jesus never gave his followers a mandate for government of any kind.  Jesus had a spiritual message for his people, and it was one he traveled the land to teach to all.  If someone denied his word, did Jesus hire thugs to force it down their throat?  Did he get laws passed that required everyone to display the ten commandments in their home and go to church every Sabbath?  Of course not.  Forcing the idea of salvation on anyone would not only be fruitless, it would be preposterously contrary to the entire concept.  It is essential that we have free will, to be able to choose whether to accept God’s law or not.  Someone who is forced to pray, to go through superficial motions of worship, is not a Christian.  Similarly, someone who is forced, by other men, to follow the commandments of God is no more saved than someone who violates them freely.

So is it a valid Christian act to outlaw something, such as prostitution, that God has decreed a sin?  Absolutely not.  In fact, it would be an expressly anti-Christian act.  Initiating force against a sinner is not something that would ever have been done or condoned by the man who insisted that we “turn the other cheek.”  What really happened with Jesus and the prostitute?  In John 8:1-7, a crowd of Jews brings Jesus an “adulteress” and asks for his blessing in stoning her to death.  Jesus says, “He that is without sin among you, let him cast a first stone at her.”  The message was clearly this: “Live, let live, and love.”

Jesus’ position on welfare was identical.  He blessed those with charitable hearts and encouraged his followers to give freely, especially to the church.  But would Jesus ever have condoned someone forcibly taking wealth from its rightful owner and giving it to someone “needier”?  What would he think of the massive wealth redistribution schemes we have all over the world now?  He would have condemned them roundly.  II Corinthians 9:7 clearly states, “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”  Theft is forbidden by the eighth commandment, and God doesn’t care what kind of noble justifications the thief gives.  All kinds of theft, including taxation, are profoundly unchristian.

Jesus disapproved of the welfare state for another reason, too.  The very first commandment forbids Christians from having idols before god.  Yet hundreds of millions of Americans belong a cult — The Cult of the Omnipotent State.  The followers of this cult turn to government as the first and only solution to virtually every problem that might beset them in life.  A government of man is Godless, disregarding the bible in its mission to redistribute wealth and pursue a secular kind of justice.  Jesus said in Matthew 6:31-33, “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  Pursuit of partisan political ends is a violent and materialistic activity that denies God’s role in providing for his people.

The picture I have painted actually shows that Jesus was beyond being a libertarian.  He was a political anarchist, an ideological enemy of the state.  To recognize any earthly authority would be to deny God’s.  Do Christians have a mandate to prosecute such crimes as murder and theft?  Judging by Jesus’ words and actions, they may not.  Here it is up to individual to decide what extent to which they will follow their faith.  In fact, the conflict we have come to is one of reason versus faith.  Will you eschew this world in hopes of salvation in the next, or will you protect your interests by resorting to individual or collective self-defense in the form of a libertarian rule of secular law?  This is a dilemma for the individual that I’m not prepared to answer.  But what I can say, and have shown, is that if one is to ask, “What would Jesus do?” the answer, no matter what the circumstances, can never involve the institutionalized violence that is government.

If you like what you’ve read, visit the Libertarians at the UW web site:

www.uwlibertarians.org