I’ve been asked to present at the upcoming Jesus Radical’s Conference (Another World is Neccessary: Anarchism, Christianity and the Race from the White House) coming up August 15-16. Even though I don’t technically think of myself as an anarchist…and even though anarchists intimidate me a bit…I’m excited to be a part of the conference.
Folks are usually surpised that I don’t call myself an anarchist…and that anarchists intimidate me.

In fact, when I told Jason Evans about my anarchistophobia, he asked: “You’re afraid of yourself?”

But I am not an anarchist. Anarchism is the rejection of rule (government). Christian anarchists are Christians that reject government. And while the phrase “Christian Anarchist” could apply to me (and in fact I’ve used it to describe myself in the past), I don’t believe we should reject government. Instead, we should embrace the government of Jesus Christ. He is our ruler. Hence, I am a CHRISTarchist. Furthermore, I don’t believe we should actively pursue the dismantling of earthly government. Instead, we are to submit to them. That isn’t to say that we should OBEY them per se. Instead, we should live at peace and submit in the same way that one would go the extra mile or turn the other cheek. I’ve written about this more here.

And regarding the point about being intimidated: I’ve seldom met a group so serious and idealistic as the anarchists. Christian anarchists are perhaps doubly so. When you get a large number of strong idealists together, things get really intense. In many ways, these are my people…I just wish we could all have a better sense of humor about things (like this paragraph).