Geez magazine call for pitches: Worship & Anarchy

To Question 1:

God created the
Universe – he is King. Pretty simple, really. At any rate, all the West’s
various so-called liberation movements, from anarchism (look up what the
anarchists did in Spain) to communism and everything in between, have, since
the French Revolution, unleashed massive terror on the world. No form of human
organization will ever be perfect, but a Good King, who cares for his people,
and is ready to die for them, and people who are ready to die for their King,
is as good as we are going to get.

Question 2:

Our
“autonomy” is a complete illusion (and part of the root of our
current problems, as we see ourselves as separate from Creation rather than recognizing
that ultimately everything is One – promothean man (and the promethean Christian
anarchist) will never live in harmony with nature, because he or she sees
nature as Other). Everything comes from God, everything is sustained in every
moment by God, everything will ultimately return to God. The process of return
to God involves the denial of our earthly identities. This is the hidden
meaning of turn the other cheek. This is not simply an anti-violence message,
but also, even moreso, an anti-ego message. One turns the other cheek because,
literally, our Earthly ego’s are of no worth – they are nothing but a veil
covering our true selves. As Jesus said, we must take up the cross and deny
ourselves. Protestants (and I am going to lump Anabaptists with them) always
take such sayings on much to much of a down to earth level. To deny ourselves
doesn’t mean to live “plainly” like the Amish, or give up churches
and ritual like the Quakers, but to deny our wants, our desire, and most importantly
our ego’s. This is what is meant when we are told we must hate our mothers and
fathers…why must we hate them? Because their earthly personalities, like
ours, are a phantom, and a veil over the truth.
Such personalities are transient, impermanent, unlike the Ultimate Reality
and Permanence that is God, and that is our Spirits or Souls.

If you went into
dokusan with a Traditional Zen Master (Buddhism has been much perverted since
contact with the materialist West) and asked about your autonomy, he would ring
you out, or maybe smack you with his stick, or perhaps just laugh in your face.

I will close with the
words of the 9th century Hindu Sage and founder of the Hindu School
of Advaita Vedanta. His name was Adi
Shankara, and he said “How is that some professors today can say ‘I am
So-and-So’ and ‘This is Mine’? Listen:
It is because their so-called education consists in thinking of their bodies as
their ‘selves’”.

Question 3:

I will admit to being completely ignorant of the work of
John Howard Yoder. However, I believe I
can speak to feminist theology, though in this milieu my thoughts (such as they
are) may be unwelcome.

I would assume feminist theology rests on the idea that
women have generally been oppressed by men throughout history. Of course, naturally this Western philosophy
turns one against a religion like Islam, for example, as modern Westerners
generally seem Islam as very sexist (most Western scholarship on non-Western
religions is, to say the least, not too good).
I know Ellul, one of the big theologians in the anarcho-Christian
milieu, misunderstood and turned on Islam, one of the reasons being its
perceived sexism.

Of course, as mentioned above, our earthly ego’s are
transient. In our final destination
there is no sexuality/gender. Sexuality/gender
is real enough in this realm, but the big problem of the modern West is to
focus on it so much. The last thing we
should be focused on is our bodies.
Better to be like Jain Monks who, at least in one of the two main sects,
do not even protect their bodies with clothes, than to be the profane modern
Western scholar who seems almost morbidly obsessed with sex and gender issues.

Question 4:

What does anarchism have to do with saving our souls? First things must come first, and this is a
deep truth. Faith in Christ first, and
other things will fall into place as best as possible.

Of course, we are obviously approaching the end, whether
thought of as the Biblical End Times, the Hindu Kali Yuga, or the Buddhist “Decadent
Age of the Dharma” (which Buddha prophetically set to begin around 1500 – the
dawn of the West’s colonial period).

Only by looking both up and within will we save ourselves,
and hopefully be examples to others.

Describe what it is about anarchists that rubs you the wrong
way:

I see no sense of grace or sacredness among this forums
members. If one took out the references
to Jesus and the Bible I would see relatively little to distinguish the average
discussions here from profane run-of-the-mill Postmodern Scholarship. Even the layout of the website is ugly. Does living in evil times mean we must give
up beauty? Must we become like Theodor
Adorno, who said only the free atonal music of someone like early Schoenberg
would do for modern times? I think not.

Of course, we are surrounded by fake beauty, but I do think
the people on this form are honest, and could with honesty design a more
beautiful layout that would not simply be kitsch.

Pitch a myth-busting article that helps readers get over
their hang-ups or a profile of a real-life Christian anarchist:

Hmm…my goal would rather be to bust some of the myths of
Christian anarchists.
Peace – Frank