Showing posts tagged solution
I have a topic suggestion that I would be interested in you address, if you're up for it. Should we just ignore the government and live our lives following God's direction? Should we denounce bad government? Does it even matter?
Since we have endeavored to undertake a sizable project called, “Submission NOT Endorsement: A Christarchist Primer on Proof Texts”, that addresses your questions a text at a time and presents plausible solutions for Christians, I’ll go ahead and let this old question be answered like that and also give my brief take on it as well :-)
1) Yes. I think the most plausible way a Christian can keep their conscience clear in relation to the murderous state is to live like the state and its sub-organizations simply don’t exist. This means a number of things practically. For instance, I’m not completely ignoring the state by using this internet connection (since it is being paid for in FRN) or driving my car (using FRN again) or using our oven, or running our water, etc. Finding alternatives to these is challenging, and will be consuming much of my year this year! I think the answer is radical, but fairly straightforward: if we as Christians want a conscience clean of state involvement, we must have a total non-consent to every aspect of its doings.
2) I think that since the prophets spent a great portion of their time denouncing bad government, and taking after the example of guys like Daniel and Joseph and ladies like Esther who said, “This far and no further,” when “their” governments became idolatrous, adulterous, or murderous, we have more than enough reason to think that denouncing government is legitimate. Furthermore, our exemplar, Jesus Himself, was APPALLED at the turning of the temple into a center of Caesar and mammon worship (since it was Caesar’s face on those coins) and wasn’t precisely quiet about it. I think also if you read Paul considering Judahic and Roman context you’ll see very strong currents of criticism of the world spirit of the state.
3) Personally, I’ve begun to wonder if it’s worth it. If it even matters. I think that for some people, they would be better off just continuing what they’re doing and not bothering with the state. For others, I would have to say that this is worth it and that it matters very much. On a general Christian scale I would say it matters very much because the state is evil, to its core, in everything it does, and that, therefore, to not at least tertiarily consider our involvement in it flatly disobeys and ignores the gravitas behind Jesus command to love YHWH with all of our hearts, souls, and minds.
Ryan Day Thompson
