The Salvation Army and Anarchism

I love Christmas. It is my favourite time of year, which has now extended to the whole of December, due to my wife and daughter having their birthdays during this month. It has become almost like a month long party. Christmas allows us to reflect on Jesus, even if it is only briefly through the haze of last second shopping and the myriad dinner functions that we need to be at. It is in a reflection such as this that I began to think about the role of Christians and anarchism. A bit abstract perhaps, but bear with me. I’ve always been drawn to anarchism as a philosophy, particularly as a Christian. Anarchy has a bit of a bad rap. It’s associated with lawlessness and crime, often portrayed as chaos and mayhem, but the philosophy behind it is different to this common misconception. Anarchism is the philosophy of a new social order based on liberty unrestricted by man-made law; the theory that all forms of government rest on violence, and are therefore wrong and harmful, as well as unnecessary (Thank you Emma Goldman). Being a salvation army officer I have struggled with reconciling the two apparently polar opposite ways of thinking that is present within the structure and autocracy that is the salvos and anarchism. So can The Salvation Army embrace anarchism as a philosophy and vice versa? Can The Salvation Army be an anarchist movement? Well the initial answer has to be no with a ‘but’! The way the salvos are set up now with an emphasis on structural integrity and administration, along with the reliance of the government for continued funding and reluctance to take a stand politically on hot potato topics due to the reliance just mentioned, creates an environment where anarchy cannot work. In fact it is in many ways the anti-anarchism movement. But if we take a look at two foundational elements of the salvos then perhaps we can say, ‘The Salvation Army isn’t an anarchist movement, BUT it should be/could be’.
The first foundational point I will look at is Jesus, considering he’s the reason for the whole deal after all. Around the Christmas period we hear many carols that talk about a baby Jesus lying down his sweet baby head blah, blah. This shows quite a poor view of the messiah really and I could go on another rant on how these pictures of Jesus have affected the psyche of many Christians and informed how they worship and do mission, but I wont yet. Rather then these carols I prefer the song that quotes Isaiah 9:6-7, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And the Government shall be on his shoulders”. This is talking about Jesus having his rule reign above all else. A close look a the life and ministry on Jesus reveals a revolutionary who raged against the machine, while bringing healing and love wherever he went. Jesus was trying to bring about a new social order, based on liberty not restricted by the rule and law of man. Sound familiar? Bingo, perhaps Jesus was an anarchist, or more likely, this original Christianity was at its core essentially anarchism in its purest form. With every generation of church leadership this initial social order was eroded a little in exchange for order and conformity, until at last it became the Roman religion of Constantine and became the law. On and on I can go, but needless to say, to embrace anarchism is not to turn from Jesus but to turn towards him. Therefore a foundational point of The Salvation Army is centred around an anarchist movement – albeit one that has lost its way. The second foundational point is the military metaphor that is used by The Salvation Army. I recently asked my mate Jarrod McKenna, about the appropriateness of the salvos military motif considering the amount of war and devastation caused by war that we see today. He said that it was ok as long as it was used subversively. The subversive use of military metaphor in the salvos has been lost. To regain it I think we need to realise that we aren’t an actual army, but we are an anti-army. A group that looks, runs and facilitates like the army, but produces different outcomes – peace, healing, love, reconciliation and joy. If we can use the army’s strengths to achieve these things we subvert the original intention of a military army and became an agent for change and a subversive influence for good.
So with these foundational points established, Jesus as our guide – revolutionary, possible anarchist icon and a strong connection to the subversive influence of the Army culture, The Salvation Army can and should be an anarchist movement, an extremely well administered one!