I am interested in a community of people of faith who are at the same time on the political left, particularly anarchism, and lgbtq+ inclusion, particularly transgender. I am kinda sick and tired of atheists harassing everyone religious. I don’t care much about the philosophy surrounding it, it is just that their collective behavior is arguably harassment, not a bit different to typical transphobic harassment about delusions etc. I believe that freedom of religious belief is a very basic right for people of all convictions. At the moment there is a huge divide: religious lgbtq+ people who are also anarchist (and might have been ostracized by their religious community on top of everything else) have no place to go without facing atheist harassment, and this is how there is no place to discuss faith together with politics and identity. So, here goes, I want to start this discussion with people who would like to see sth like this happening.
Each day on Lemmy I scroll and scroll and then I reach a headline where after reading it I have to parse what it says. And then I realize it’s gibberish. And then I realize it’s the bottom of the feed and what I’m reading has a negative score.
Today this was that post.
Love your lack of interest in learning about people with different beliefs and identities from you.
That’s certainly one way to read it. Except you don’t know anything else about me. The problem isn’t the interest in other identities. The problem is the complete clusterfuck of identities presented in that headline. Each additional descriptor narrows down the field of people it’s talking about until you end up with n=1. It’s so incredibly niche that most people, including myself, can’t even picture what must be going on in the heads of these people. Maybe if there was a poster child that would help. But it would take a 30 minute podcast interview to delve into all of those aspects and help it all make sense. Just trying to square the religion plus anarchy section makes the brain hurt. And then we get more niche after that.
Christian Anarchy specifically has a long history dating in some ways back to the early church period. A very direct interpretation of the New Testament clearly directs one to renounce wealth inequality and to view all people as equals. Especially the beatitudes from the sermon on the mount, which literally says that the poor and persecuted are blessed and will be the ones to go to heaven. Many Christian anarchists view the violence of the state as inherently incompatible with Jesus’s command in the antithesis “to love thy enemy” and “turn the other cheek.” It is also commonly argued that nationalism is an example of idolatry, which is condemned in the ten commandments.
Jesus himself lived what can only be described as a bohemian lifestyle. He ejected the merchants from the second temple. He criticized kings and merchants. He was a willing martyr, willing to die rather than to resist violently.
All these things contribute to the long-standing traditions of Christian Anarchy. A very literal interpretation of his teachings and emulation of his way of life leads one pretty naturally to anarchy. There exist anarchist communities in many major religions.