Insomniac Folklore Tour: Christians and Anarchy

July 29th

Our show today was at a Christian Anarchist conference, hosted by Jesus Radicals and Missio Dei. When Tyler first mentioned the venue, my first reaction was “What the tuna?!” I hold a grudge against anarchists (if you hate America so much, move the heck out, I’ve always said), but I tried to convince myself I was entered with a clear and open mind. The self-convincing failed, and I decided to admit that I was coming in as a skeptic.

Around 12:30 we wandered into the Mennonite church where the conference was about to get started. A hodgepodge of souls milled about: young and old, rough and clean-cut. A guy with a nest of blonde braids and inch-wide gauged ears sat next to a woman with glasses and a floral-print dress that fell to her knees. A middle-aged man with his dress shirt tucked into his khakis shared the pew with a kid wearing clothes that looked like he had just been pulled out of a wood chipper. Girls with unshaved legs abounded, and I hadn’t seen that much dreadlocked hair since we were in Portland. No matter the age, gender, or race of the people present, they all seemed to share a feeling of excitement and a sense of community. Everyone here had one core idea: down with authority, all praise to God!

I attended three seminars over the course of the day, and each one deserves a lengthy blog entry, but I don’t have time or space for it. For those as clueless about Christian Anarchism as I was when I first stepped through the doors, here is a brief summary: it is a strain of Christianity based on the idea that Jesus came to earth to teach us a new way of living, without leaders or figures of authority. All are of equal value in the power of the Holy Spirit; therefore no one can be set up above anyone else. Conclusion? The government should be dismantled, civilization should spread out more evenly, communities should decide their laws collectively, and everyone should be on equal footing.

The speakers I heard and the people I talked to had a lot of good points and ideas— even when I didn’t agree with them, I could usually understand their conviction in the context of their argument. The main point with which I disagreed was the overarching idea of no one being in authority over anyone else. I’m a strong believer in hierarchy, as long as it is both compassionate and fluid. A strong and godly father in a family is a good example of this: he may turn over a specific section of authority to someone else in the family, and he may concede many or most decisions to the mother, but in the end, his is the final word, the tipping point, based on his own submission to God as the ultimate leader. This is not tyranny; it’s family, and it’s a beautiful structure.

I could go into a long dissertation about my views on gender roles, authority structures, and the nature of leadership, but I’ll demur for now. (Perhaps this will show up in a later blog entry.)

Everyone I talked to had core beliefs that united them— and my lack of these beliefs confused them. One guy I met seemed confident that I would applaud his book choices when he told me, “Oh, I’ve been reading a lot of feminist literature lately.” “Really?” I replied. “I consider myself anti-feminist. What have you been reading?” I got the book title out of him, but not before he stuttered around, baffled that a woman could possibly be anti-feminist. My casual mention that I mostly believe in patriarchy won me some astonished looks as well. Everyone, however, heard me out, and everyone listened with the kind of attention that vehemently disagrees, but tries to see things from a different point of view anyway. Every person I met was open-minded in the best way possible.

The show itself was fun, performed on a wide stage with lights that made me feel that I was in drama class again. We crashed on a kind anarchist’s apartment floor for the night.

As I said, I had fully expected to find a load of complaining hypocrites at the conference. Instead I found a group of people who may or may not be misled, but are earnestly seeking balance, truth, and God’s will in their lives.

~Lisa Shafter