I would say that if Jesus had to fit into a box of politics he would be a Anarchist. It's the only governance that is not predicated on force. I would assert that the "state" is a form of idolatry.
True charity and compassion come from the heart and voluntarily giving and helping, not through mandatory forced redistribution.
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Christian anarchism is a movement in political theology that claims anarchism is inherent in Christianity and the Gospels.[1][2] It is grounded in the belief that there is only one source of authority to which Christians are ultimately answerable, the authority of God as embodied in the teachings of Jesus, and thus rejects the idea that human governments have ultimate authority over human societies. Christian anarchists denounce the state as they claim it is violent, deceitful and, when glorified, idolatrous.[3][4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_anarchismMore than any other Bible source, the Sermon on the Mount is used as the basis for Christian anarchism.[5] Most Christian anarchists are pacifists and reject the use of violence, such as war.[3] Leo Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You is often regarded as a key text for modern Christian anarchism.[3][6]
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Because the Golden Rule goes a step farther than the non-aggression principle, which could be paraphrased “treat others the way you want to be treated, unless they initiate force,” it follows that Jesus would not approve of the initiation of force in any situation.
https://dailyanarchist.com/2014/12/22/jesus-is-an-anarchist/Government as we know it is inherently violent. It cannot exist without threatening, robbing, caging, and killing. None of the pawns who carry out the State’s many punishments want to be treated the way they treat others. Clearly, Statism is utterly incompatible with the Golden Rule.
It was with this truth in mind that the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy wrote:
“All State obligations are against the conscience of a Christian—the oath of allegiance, taxes, law proceedings, and military service. And the whole power of the government rests on these very obligations. Revolutionary enemies attack the government from without. Christianity does not attack it at all, but, from within, it destroys all the foundations on which government rests.”
As if that wasn’t clear enough, a few pages later he stated:
“Christianity in its true sense puts an end to government…no honest and serious-minded man of our day can help seeing the incompatibility of true Christianity—the doctrine of meekness, forgiveness of injuries, and love—with government, with its pomp, acts of violence, executions, and wars. The profession of true Christianity not only excludes the possibility of recognizing government, but even destroys its very foundations.”
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Jacques Ellul, a French philosopher and Christian anarchist, notes that the final verse of the Book of Judges (Judges 21:25) states that there was no king in Israel and that "everyone did as they saw fit".[7][8][9] Subsequently, as recorded in the first Book of Samuel (1 Samuel 8) the people of Israel wanted a king "so as to be like other nations".[10][11] God declared that the people had rejected him as their king. He warned that a human king would lead to militarism, conscription and taxation, and that their pleas for mercy from the king's demands would go unanswered.
This post was edited by Master_Zappy on Jan 29 2016 08:07pm