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!
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Hi Troy, I'm pretty sure your last line was a joke, it was certainly a deliberate contradiction as there can be no such thing as a well administered anarchy. :) I'm not an anarchist myself as I think chaos empowers the brutes and absolute freedom, this side of the Infinite, will allow as much of our crap to be expressed as it will allow our glory to be expressed and there are a lot of folk with really horrendous crap to share. The idea of freedom is genuine without it being absolute. I think the natural human experience of freedom indicates that it is natural for us to have bounded freedom rather than absolute. We have considerable freedom in our bodies, we can do many things, go many places, endurem, survive and prosper in a wide range of environments, but we cannot fly in our bodies alone, there are natural limits to our freedom but it's still genuinly a freedom. In our thinking the same is found, we can think simply or we can learn to think complexly, we can think in private or think out loud, we can think in pretty much any direction we want but we cannot think in such a way as to change something like 2+2=4, no amount of thinking will create 2+2=5 to be true in our heads. Again it's a lot of genuine freedom but it's bounded freedom. I think the best societies and the best communities are ones which seek to maximise freedom without pretending no boundaries are needed. I am myself suspicious of boundary makers because they are all human and thus inclined to set boundaries reflective of self interest but that does not dissuade me from the idea that humans are designed to need boundaries and that we actually experience MORE freedom when it's bounded than when it's unbounded. Consider the freedom that exists for most people in a war zone - that's unbounded, law breaks down, personal responsibility breaks down, accountability goes missing and what happens?
ReplyDeleteFun to read your thoughts Troy, now I shall read some more. (Rubs hands together with evil glee.)
Mikel.
As a person who has experience working for the Salvation Army, I don't necessairly agree with Troy, but I understand his concept.
ReplyDeleteIt is my perception that the Army trains people for 2 years at Bible School, then sends them out to work for a Corps Officer after so many years they are promoted in rank, eventually getting their own command, but they are far from experienced and the "lay people that are trained
(from previous job experiences and education)are the ones that have the knowledge to keep the agency functioning.
The Officers, as a whole, have really no life experiences, and are well taken care of with all the basic paid for, plus perks, so there is no concept of the "real world".
It appears to me, that the loyalty is first to The Salvation Army, God and then family. They are moved around so frequently that it is almost impossible to form bonds outside of the Army, and they have no say. The Army ditcates.
I have also noticed that among the numerous
"Army" people that I have interacted with there is an air of not trusting 'outsiders", and they seem to be obsessed with the idea people are always stealing from them.
The focus is on $ and each Corps has to pay a fee on each $ taken in, 10% to DHQ and 2% to Headquaters in Ga. All programs run by the Army are by grant funding, not the money that they receive. Oh, in many yrs of association with Army the Army did put out a Grant with their $, a 20,000. which all Corps in the state had to compete for., but had to use the $ the way DHQ wanted not what the community needed!
The pay rate for most staff is at min. wage unless you happen to work in a Headquaters, even
a Master's level professional are not
compensated as they should be.
Please note that I was approached by an Officer to work for the Army, and promised many things and pay rate that did not happen.
It is just a job to me, that I don't have to take home and worry about. I didn't create that mind set-- the Army did!
Also the Army instructs Officers on how to evaluate staff (told by a retired Major), so staff never really has a chance for a decent wage hike. Of course, this is denied.
This is a good "gig" for a young person if they can look long term, especially in a non-existed job market.
I know that Army loyalist will dispute this, but this is the truth so help me God!
I just would like to mention that the scandals
(usually comitted by Officers (Pastors) are kept hush-hush, and if a "lay" person is wronged the Army will look for a way to turn the situtation around and eliminate that person having them sign a statement that they will not set foot on the Salvation Army property, especially if the person was injured at work, was not intiminated by the Army tactics.
I know there are exceptions to the rule, and some Officers will refuse to do something that they think is unethical, well if they refuse DHQ, they are transfered right out of the command terriorty A.S.A.P!
I think I will explore what $ the Army takes in and what their expense are for housing, cars, car insurance, electric, water, newspaper, cabel and such that the Officers receive while active. Of course upon retirement all is gone. So saving $ is a must, but why couln't one save if everything else is paid for?
Did I mention that the wives are expected to work along with their husbands, but receive a stipend, not a salary? And the Officers are listed as Independent Contractors, which the IRS has firm guidlines about, and I believe that if fully investigated, the Army would be in violation of the IRS rules.
Oh, did I also mention that the Salvation Army is classified as a church, so no unemployment taxes are taken out of the worker's pay, nor paid in by the Army so that if anyone "laid off or fired they cannot file for unemployment.
Now what would Jesus do?
I guess it is obvious why I cannot state my name.