On Voting

 

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In the days of Samuel, the Israelites wanted a king “such as all the other nations have.” That's a bad idea, he said. Here's why and then he gives them a long list of calamities that will happen to them if they go ahead with that plan. But the Israelites insisted, so God gave them Saul, young, tall and handsome; nothing about  his character, just his appearance. Of course it was a disaster and to this day we still suffer from that terrible mistake.

In time, almost everyone could see that one, or even a few, ruling the many wasn't so great after all. Some very smart people thought they could fix it, so they gave us democracy. But alas, the rich and powerful could still manipulate the vote through the deception that 51 ruling the 49 would somehow be an actual step up. Moreover, by participating in the voting process, the losers become accomplices in the tyranny of the majority. 

In a few months, many Americans will go to vote, but not I. The state is inherently corrupt and it is for this reason I do not vote, but there is hope. There is a solution.

Stop worshiping power, wealth and possessions. Those things only ruin the relationships we have with one another. It turns us into enemies. Instead, turn to the well being of all of humanity as our collective reason for being here. Make it your job to be a blessing for everyone else. If everyone did that, there would be no one left to suffer.

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What is Religion?

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What is religion? Well, that depends on who you ask. It also depends on when or where you ask. The one thing almost everyone can agree on, though, is that some form of religion is practically universal. There are very few, if any, places on Earth that have never seen any kind of religion. 

Some say that religion is part of human nature. Others say that curiosity is part of human nature and that religion is the result of curiosity as finding comfort in things beyond the basics of food and shelter. Human nature is itself an equally elusive concept. Smart people have tried to figure out what exactly constitutes human nature for centuries. To this day, it is a subject of great debate.

The dictionary defines religion as “belief in and worship of “ something “superhuman,” something  with unlimited power, something of “supreme importance,” something above all else. Religion manifests itself in numerous ways, commonly in complex systems of practices such as offering explanations for unknowns like creation or natural phenomena or guidance for behavior and relationships in society. Sometimes, religion is used as a way to exert power over people.

Christianity is just one of many thousands distinct religions in existence around the world, most of which only have small numbers of followers. The vast majority belong to one of a handful of religions with near global reach. Christianity is one of them. Christianity itself has thousands of variations worldwide, several hundred in the U.S. alone.

On Church and State - a Timeline

Alexandre Christoyannopoulos published his doctoral thesis that anarchism is inherent in Christianity in bookform in 2011 as Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel. It was an attempt to paint a coherent picture of Christian anarchism by bringing together in one place the writings of multiple writers.

Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) who became well known for his opposition to both the church and the state was the most prolific of these anarchist writers. In 1886 he published an article titled Church and State. In his main non-literary work, The Kingdom of God is Within You, he refers to Petr Chelcicky.

Petr Chelcicky published his main work, The Net of Faith, in 1443, almost a hundred years before the Reformation. He uses the image of two whales (church and state) thrashing around in the net cast by fishers of men to the point of breaking it so all the fish spill out.

Jesus of Nazareth did not write anything himself, but the gospel writers, Matthew (4:19) and Mark (1:17), both quote him for appointing disciples as fishers of men. Jesus is well known for opposition to not only the oppressive Roman occupation but also to the heavy handed rule of their own religious leaders, but most of all for his radical and revolutionary approach of non-resistance.

Easter

 

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Easter is the Christian holiday when Christians the world over commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For a lot of people, the holiday is associated with the easter bunny, easter lambs, easter eggs and not much else. For them, it has little or nothing to do with Jesus. That is why some fundamentalists now refer to the day as Resurrection Day instead of Easter.

The thing is, the resurrection did not happen; at least not in a literal sense. Saying things like that is not going to make you popular among your Christians friends, but it is the truth. The resurrection story and, indeed, the creation story are myths that have been debunked long ago, yet, they continue to persist. People do not come back from the dead, at least not physically. 

There is evidence that out of body experiences and near death experiences are real, but only in the sense that they are caused by brains under severe stress conditions. The process of dying is no longer considered an instantaneous event, but takes place over a period of time varying depending on the individual. A small number of people have woken up after having been declared dead. They were not really dead. The criteria we normally associate with life just could not be detected. This is unlikely to have been what happened to Jesus, though. The medical expertise to care for such a person is not likely to have been developed yet, but we will never know for sure.

Most of us of any kind of advanced age have lost someone(s) who was close to us, perhaps a family member or someone who we considered an important influence in our lives. The memory of these people tends to stay in our minds for a long time and may even never really go away completely. Sometimes the influence of such people transcends generations, even millennia. History books are full of important people like that. For a small group of people, Jesus was such a person.

Humans are story telling animals. We are pretty sure all animals have ways to communicate with each other to some degree or another, but humans seem to have taken the art to a whole different level with the invention of written language that can be preserved for a long time.

It took several decades before the gospel writers picked up on the significance of what had happened to one of the insurrectionists who opposed the brutal oppression of not only the Roman occupation, but also of the rich and powerful among their own people. He seemed to be living on in the memories of his followers more than usual to the point that perhaps some began to develop a sense of a physical presence. By the time the writers started to write any of it down, myths had already begun to develop about him, one of which is the resurrection.

Despite claims to the contrary, the gospel writers were not historians. Their purpose was not to record historical facts, but to paint a literary picture of the character of an extraordinary person in history. To this day, we admire these literary masterpieces. We would not want to spend another Christmas without angels, lambs, shepherds and wise men, would we?

The significance of these stories for us today is that we can know the heart of God through what they say about Jesus. We can know that the God prehistoric humans developed long ago is a God who wants nothing less than the Garden of Eden to be restored, a heavenly kingdom where love reigns supreme, a world where humans recognize that our very purpose in life is to be a blessing for others. This is the hope we have in Jesus, the promise that if we follow him and his message, a world without suffering, a world without violence will be the result. 

So far, no one has adopted a lifestyle as radical as that, but thanks to the gospel writers we have faith that a world like that can exist. Faith is believing without proof. Let us be the proof. Let us get together and create a life like that.

 

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