Still Not the Anarchists Cookbook

  A friend of mine has written something brilliant, and this brilliance grew out of an ongoing email discussion that we were having about government and its relationship to the Christian.   Now I feel I have to do some explaining to the readers who weren’t privy to the discussion, and also to do justice to his remarks.  This friend is genuinely one of the most thoughtful guys I know, and I’m not just saying this because he reads my blog. Even when we disagree, he makes me think, and what more could you ask?

  Although I do consider myself a libertarian, he does not. He wrote extensively on what he feels is a huge flaw in libertarian philosophy, and made some excellent points. He has been, in the past, highly critical of some people who espouse a philosophy of liberty but practice a philosophy of rebellion, and it’s an important distinction to draw since it is after all a condition of the heart.  His take on most libertarians is that they say what they say not necessarily because they want liberty, but rather out of resentment towards any sort of authority (2 Pet 2:19, 2 Pet 2:10).  I think that’s a valid observation, although it’s painting with a broad brush since any label you could pick  would cover a lot of people who may not even agree with each other.  But let me throw in my two cents, and we’ll see what happens.  I apologize in advance if I am just hitting the high points of my overall thoughts on this, but I’m trying to cover a lot of ground here.

  The source of all liberty is God (Luke 4:18, 2 Cor 3:17).  The source of all authority is also God (1 Pet 3:22, Dan 3:28, Col 1:16).  I believe in ‘natural rights’ although I’ve always found the term a little odd, because my rights are not derived from rocks and trees and rivers and streams, they come from God.  They didn’t  pop into existence in 1776.  I have the right to property defined as assets that are specifically mine and God weighs in with a commandment of “Thou shalt not steal”. I have a right to life, and God   confirms this with a commandment “Thou shalt not kill”.  God couples these rights with accountability to him as to how I use them.   After all, I wasn’t given eyes so that I could look at other men’s wives; I was given eyes so that I could perceive and marvel at his creation.   I wasn’t given a voice so that I could gossip, I was given a voice to praise him with. Since they are my eyes and my voice, I can use them either way, but I will give an account either way (Gal 5:13).  

  In the meantime, he institutes governing authorities in my life and over my life.  These range from my parents when I was a kid to my pastor to the local government to the court system to the federal government.  Some people are born to better parents than others just as some are born under governments that allow more freedom than others.  Some of these   authorities are temporary, like my parents.  Some of these authorities can be changed, like my pastor.  Some require tremendous changes, like expatriation.  But the fact is, somebody is always going to be in charge of you, to one   degree or another, and this is God’s will.

  When a people turn their back on God, generally speaking , they lose liberty (Prov 29:2). This is merely God withdrawing his favor from a people who do not want him.  People get the government that reflects their willingness to serve God.  .  He does this in a variety of ways.  Sometimes he allows corrupt people to seize the reins of power. Sometimes he allows an invading army to come in.  All of these reductions in practical liberty are a result of God’s judgment on people who have misused their initial liberty.  My favorite Biblical example is the Babylonian captivity, in which the children of Israel were rewarded for their idolatry by having a barbarian horde drag their children off in chains.  This judgment went on for 70 years, and people saw their children, and grand children and great grandchildren grow up surrounded by idolatry because they had loved their idols so much. They had misused their liberty, so God took it away.  But it would be incorrect to cite this as an example that God is against liberty.  God is for both liberty, and authority, as they both work hand in hand in a people whose heart is after God.

 If all that’s true, and I believe that it is, , then the real issue isn’t what Obama is going to do. The real issue is what are you going to do. If you are really in favor of liberty, then you have an obligation to live right, and obey the whole counsel of God, not just the parts you like or the parts line up with your philosophy (Psalm 119:45).  The strong  (and frankly mystifying) anti-God streak present in a lot of libertarian circles is the Achilles heel of the modern liberty movement, and it is quite likely the reason why  we have not seen the sort of success God gave to the colonial Americans in re-establishing liberty.

  So what, as a Christian, should be my position towards the authority God has put over my life?  Should I be shouting for its overthrow?  Should I be instigating violence against it?  Should I browbeat and belittle it at every opportunity?  Scripture is pretty clear on this.  I am supposed to live the best life possible under my current situation, with the idea in sight that I will give account to God as to how I lived and fared under an oppressive corrupt system ( Eph 6:1-10).  If I am in a position of authority, I should strive to be just. (2 Sam 23:3, Heb 13:17).  I should police my own life to ensure that I am not the part of the reason for God’s favor turning from us.  I should pray for the authority over me, not send out mocking emails (Jude 1:8).  In those prayers, I don’t ask for their death, but rather that God will turn their hearts (Matt 5:44, Prov 21:1).  In the meantime, I should try my best to live out the commandments of God as much as I can, and live under these temporary circumstances in light of an eternal reality.  And for the record, I’m not particularly good at anything I just listed. I probably have a lot more rebellion in my heart than I realize.

  Now I currently live under a system where I still have some  ability to at least make my disagreement known.  I have the right, under this authority, to protest policy. I have the right to call my Congressman, to vote, to make my voice heard.  It is legitmate to point out when those in authority overstep their  authority, but I don’t have the right, as a Christian, to rise up against what God has put over me (Titus 3:1).  I am not required to be a yes-man or a lapdog to corrupt men, but I must be very careful as a Christian to not step over from disagreement into rebellion.  I could go a bit further into where I think that line is, but that’s a topic for another time.

   I also have friends  who are  'anarchists' and 'stateless libertarians'  and 'anarchocaps' and all sorts of other interesting labels. I encourage them to  look up the verses, and by all means join the discusion.

People are Crazy, and Not in a Good Way

  You'll have to  forgive my vagueness on the details, but I am neither a sports fan or a celebrity watcher, but as far as I can tell, this is what  happened; an athlete announced to the  world that he is a sexual deviant; a homosexual. Now what this has to do with his profession I haven't the foggiest idea.  There is a tendency among people  with that  deviancy to get their entire life wrapped up in their deviancy; to find their  very identity in the  'cause'. Honestly, my heterosexuality  almost never comes  up in conversation and I've never thought it  needed to be celebrated or applauded.
  Soon after this announcement, another  athletete  put out a statement  claiming confusion as to why  a man would prefer another man with all the  beautiful women in the world. This statement was pounced upon by the media, although its really not that different from a thousand similar statements Ive  heard heterosexual men  make amongst themselves over the years.
  Thirdly, yet another athlete made a statement that he is a Christian, and  homosexuality is not something to be celebrated, but rather  something to be condemned as the sin that is according to Scripture.  On  this, the  media went absolutely berserk, but in a pathetically predictable way. I had the misfortune of having to watch  an afternoon talk show populated by a panel of very 'progressive' and 'open-minded' women who were weighing in on this despite the fact that  it was none of their business and no one had asked them.  One by one, they spouted their open-minded drivel to the   frantic clapping of their empty-headed audience. Each one  seemed to try to outdo the one before her in how open-minded  she could be, and although they expressed their opinions, it was all the exact same opinion. There was no deviation from the party line. Sodomite  good, Christian bad, straight down the line.
 One of these women, a grammatically challenged  lady who reminds me of Mr. Ed, misquoted a Bible verse to prove her point and then said that the  Christian athlete "he sin every day". That may be true, I'm not familiar with his personal life, but I am willing to bet that when he does, he does not expect to be congratulated, celebrated, patted on the back or made into a hero for it.  Only deviants expect that, and  only fools comply.
  But this is a  free country, mostly, and these  women have the right to their opinion, but isn't it interesting that they all knew, despite their diverse backgrounds, EXACTLY what they were expected to say.  They didn't even have to  think about it.  None of them dare say 'Well the Christian guy may have a point, why are we applauding this? Is it really 'bravery' to air your faults like this?'.  You take a stand like that, you step outside the groupthink parameters, outside of the  3x5 card of accepted opinion ( thank you, Tom Woods) and you become a pariah,an outcast. You become one of Them. You won't get your   hefty contract for your show,  sponsors will drop you,  you won't be invited to  all the cool parties.  Really its just  high school on a much grander scale. You are either one of the cool kids ( and the  cool kids decide  whether or not you are) or you're a  Them.
  Well call me a Them, but I think I'll just stick with the Book. It's done right by me so far.