Christian Anarchists Forget Their Commandments
This is not a story in the Onion. This is not a joke. This is where radical Christianity has gone. This is not an indictment on all Christians. However, this is becoming a reality for a large sect of the evangelical Christian movement. It has given tacit acceptance to the behavior of Christian Anarchists.
Stealing from stores in the name of Christianity is sad. What is even more sad is that it is being popularized online by a website called Jesus Radical. According to the site, a group of three Christian Anarchists stole all the material they considered ‘sexist and objectifying products’ at a Georgia kiosk and replaced it with ‘placards with anti-sexist rhetoric’. It numbered over 200 items.
How did these Christian Anarchist accomplish their task?
According to the posting at the website they accomplished the feat as follows.
Together, we formulated a plan and decided upon roles that we were all comfortable with: the distraction, the bagger, and the lookout. The area was scoped out beforehand for cameras, number of employees, and general foot traffic, and escape routes were elaborated.
WSBTV reports that according to the kiosk employee Chris Tott, he never saw when the racy material was stolen. Among the stolen products by the Christian Anarchists were Dallas Cheerleaders and Sports Illustrated calendars.
The kiosk owner Jessica Roy, is upset. She said these thugs chose the wrong target. She said she is just a small business person trying to make a living.
Gwinnett Police told WSBTV that they believe the website poster likely committed the crime. The signs that were left are now in police evidence. The problem is that there is not much forensics as the Christian Anarchists modus operandi as indicated by the post is to wear gloves among other efforts to enter and leave the crime scene undetected. The owner of the website with the post says they have no clue as to the perpetrators of the crime.
There are two things this story brings to mind. They are both telling.
Many groups are doing bad thing in the name of Christianity. In doing so without rebuke from many evangelical groups, it starts to become the norm. One need only remember the brutal assassination of Dr. George Tiller and the reprehensible shenanigans of Westboro Baptist Church..
One wonders if these Christian Anarchists were able to complete their thievery because of stereotyping. Their effort took some time. They had to be left alone for several minutes. If they were three Black or Latino people, it is likely they would have been followed and profiled like many Black and Latino people are in many stores. That would present the perfect narrative to the failure of profiling.
One can only hope that evangelicals will become more responsible. One hopes that they will begin to speak out against the acts of many of their factions. One hopes they will remember the real teachings of Jesus, the New Testament, and the Old Testament.
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The Bible should be read as a continuous story to truly understand the message that is being conveyed. You cannot take one verse and say that it is a teaching without taking into account other verses that may negate or reverse meaning later in the “story”. That is the issue with interpreting the Bible literally word for word.
so what you’re saying is that your god is purposefully and maliciously ambiguous; quick to rain punishments and pain if the “secret rules” are broken; and deceitful. yet you’re being continuously told you are loved beyond measure and you will have paradise if only you will unquestioningly obey and spend all your waking hours praising and placating, bowing and scraping. oh, and if you don’t, then you’ll be inflicted with untold misery, pain, heartache and death.
you may call it your religion, but it sounds like an an abusive relationship to me.
christianity IS a bumpersticker religion though, it was Meant to be read as a series of one liners, not a continuous story; if you read it as a continuous story you realize that you have way too much time and not enough to think about in REAL life.
This seems bizarre. I wouldn’t be surprised if “radical Christians” pulled a stunt like this in the name of ridding the world from the worship of sins of the flesh. But misogyny? Really? What do they think huge portions of the Bible and the practices of churches around the world are based on – gender equality? I hope they show the same concern for the institutionalized misogyny of the Christian church.
What part of “Thou Shalt Not Steal” offers an exemption for this?
Some of us are working from within to change the institutionalized misogyny, homophobia, and patriarchal nature of the church and also its unreasonable expectations of men as the end-all and be-all of the family. Some of us are also working in the world to do the same. It might be interesting for you to look into such things. Also, theft is a sin, just like misogyny, and so these people are acting outside the Word of God, even as they try to change people’s hearts. They need to find other ways to get their point across.
These people have all sorts of high-minded ideals to justify their actions. And those ideals are hard to argue with, because they’re correct. BUT…what they did was wrong and just as immoral as the ideals they are fighting against. By becoming common shop-lifters they have lowered themselves and their cause into the same level as petty criminals and they should be treated as such. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
Hey, I could read about what other corps and real people say and do all the time but I’m busy creating decent jobs instead of moaning online about it. All you need to do is start small and keep at it until you can get the attention of someone willing to advise you, and avoid the bad things, like laziness and naysayers. One out of 5 of your companies will work out, just remember- get the checks cut to you not to the man. Theft isn’t a solution, especially from a small business.
that can inform you on what Christian Anarchism actually is. You can even use Wikipedia to find out their basic ideology.