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The spirit of this debate is that of the Bereans,
who searched the Scriptures.
This is not a confrontational debate, but a cordial exchange of
ideas,
educational and provocative:
And let us consider how
to provoke one another to love and good deeds,
Hebrews 10:24
This will be the most remarkable exchange of ideas you have ever participated in.
You and your group will begin an intensive
study of the Bible
such as you have never experienced.
I, as a Christian
Anarchist,
hereby challenge
you, as a Christian defender of the concept of "the
State"
to a public debate.
The topic:
If you cannot find someone to debate me,
I will present these ideas to your men's group, Sunday School, or
fellowship gathering
which can then ask questions and receive challenging answers.
You are surely asking one of two groups of questions:
GROUP A
Why should I invest my time debating you or listening to your presentation?
Why should my men's group, Sunday School, or fellowship gathering listen to your ideas?
What exactly is your position, anyway?
These are fair questions.
GROUP B
What are you, some kind of a nut?
What are you talking about - "Christian Anarchism?"
What are you, some kind of a nut?!?
These are also fair questions.
Who I Am
My name is Kevin Craig. I am the founder and webmaster for Vine & Fig Tree, Inc., a non-profit educational organization that has been promoting Christian anarchism for over 20 years. Vine & Fig Tree has nearly 1500 webpages on the Internet. The name "Vine & Fig Tree" comes from the Old Testament prophet Micah, and is described here.
| Left-wing Radical | Right-wing Extremist | |
| For nearly 10
years my home was a
shelter for the needy. I invited the homeless into my
home for lunch, serving thousands, and in appropriate
circumstances, gave them a room, sometimes for a night,
sometimes for the rest of their lives. I was a part of the Catholic
Worker movement.
You can call me a pacifist. |
Before I
graduated from USC, I was a Chalcedon
Scholar, and had a regular column in the Chalcedon
Report. My first article is here.
Chalcedon was identified as the "think-tank" of
the Religious Right (Newsweek, 1981).
I believe America was and must again become a Christian Theocracy. I support pure Laissez-Faire Capitalism. |
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My Argument Against the State
I will lay out my position so there will be no surprises. Here are the 5 subjects I would like to cover. The links below will take you to pages which are linked to hundreds of studies. It would take you months of conscientious and prayerful study to go through them all. I can distill them into a presentation of almost any size -- 10 minutes, 40 minutes, or several hours -- and the ensuing questions will open up one of the most exciting Bible studies you've ever participated in.
| 1. | The origin of "the State": An invention of evil men for evil purposes. "The State" is not "ordained" (approved) by God.
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| 2. | "The State" violates the Commandments of God in the Hebrew-Christian Bible. |
| 3. | "The State" is the most dangerous, most violent criminal organization on the planet. |
| 4. | "Anarcho-Theocracy" best represents the genius of America's Founding Fathers. |
| 5. | The "Depravity of Man" and the "Kingdom of God." |
These links should help you anticipate how I will respond to your counter-arguments.
If you don't see the value of this project, I can't blame you.
I have to admit, I'm desperate to find someone who'll debate me. If you defend the State, you won't consider exposing the myths that support it a good thing. Giving people an invitation to re-think the legitimacy of "the government" is not high on your list of priorities. And since the Vine & Fig Tree website is a radical call for personal responsibility, self-sacrifice, and a denunciation of the statist principle of living at the expense of others, it is too radical to ever be wildly popular. Without your help, my influence will be limited. But I'm going to keep working at it, and I'll be targeting YOUR readers, so you might as well debate me now. If you're optimistic, you might be saving us both a lot of time.
Eventually this position is going to win out and become the dominant paradigm.
Already "anarcho-capitalism" is a growing ideological movement on the Internet.
If you have never heard of Vine & Fig Tree or its vision of "Anarcho-Theocracy," you're in for a roller-coaster ride. If your first impression is that it's a "10" on the nut-scale of 1-10, if you peruse the links above you'll eventually conclude it's a "10" on the really-interesting-and-probably-beneficial-new-ideas scale. Perhaps before the debate even begins, you'll have switched from debating me as an adversary to joining me as an advocate.
The Vine & Fig Tree vision is the only answer to both questions. "Anarcho-Theocracy" is the maximization of the ideal that made America the greatest, most admired nation on earth: "Liberty Under God." Conservatives like "Under God" but not "Liberty." Liberals have an etymological relationship to "Liberty" but look to the Messianic State for social salvation and fear the God of "fundamentalism." "Liberty Under God" means compassion, not indifference, nurtured by persuasion, not coercion. The Vine & Fig Tree vision motivated America's Founding Fathers, though not in as consistent an expression as ours.
I recognize that you have more status than I do, you have a captive audience, and your participation in this debate will make these new ideas a success. I will be personally grateful for your participation, and a courteous and gracious debater.
Truth and understanding are advanced through the clash of competing ideas. You have never faced competition like this.
The Character of a Christian Anarchist