The Christian Case Against "National Defense"

Sequester the entire trillion-dollar defense budget.

The U.S. has no defense against incoming missiles.
"The Defense Dept." can't defend us against 20 hijackers.
So what exactly are we being "defended" against?

Are we really being defended against an "invasion?" I doubt it.
Instead of spending a trillion dollars on "defense," let's just buy the dog-tags (and the allegiance) of every soldier in China's 2.3 million-man army for a quarter of a million dollars each once the invaders get here. Cheaper than the entire defense budget, then they party to celebrate their freedom and invest the windfall back into our economy. My point: no foreign government wants to "invade" America because the lowly chattel-invaders will all defect once they reach our shores.

If they don't want to defect -- if there's no difference between our socialist tyranny and the tyranny of the invaders -- then this nation shouldn't be defended anyway.

If they are pathological and simply want to destroy us, that may be because our "Defense Dept." killed their cousins by dropping a "smart bomb" on their wedding.

For a trillion dollars, we could send a $1,000 check to every Muslim man, woman and child on the entire planet with a nice Hallmark Card that says "America is a great place. Has your government given you a thousand bucks recently?" For millions of Muslims, it's a year's wages. Imagine we had been doing this every year since 1953 when the CIA overthrew the democratically-elected government of Iran. It could be a completely Christianized world by now.

Bribery is better than "defense."
And far more Christian.

"Defense" is just a sham. It's a New Deal-style "public works project" for defense contractors.

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The Christian Case Against "National Defense" | Spontaneous audio rant

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Vine & Fig Tree Tornado Crisis Fund

Vine & Fig Tree Tornado Crisis Fund

Your donation is urgently needed! 

  On February 29, 2012, a tornado tore through Powersite, Missouri causing devastating damage.

The home of Kevin Craig was destroyed.  And as half of that house served as the offices of Vine & Fig Tree, Inc., the home of Vine & Fig Tree was lost, too.

Kevin’s mother, Marybeth, age 86, suffered a serious head injury when the ceiling collapsed on her. She has not recovered well.  The injury accelerated dementia and her frail body is now sustained by a feeding tube.  Kevin is her 24-hour a day caregiver, with scheduled (and unscheduled) duties every 2 hours, interrupting sleep and all charitable fundraising efforts to continue the Vine & Fig Tree ministry.

Now, nearly one year after the tornado, the reconstruction of the Powersite home and Vine & Fig Tree offices are nearing completion, but not yet finished.  Progress has been made as quickly as possible.  But, in a widespread disaster area, resources are limited and demand is high even for things like heavy equipment and dumpsters.  So, demolition and debris removal took three months before actual reconstruction could commence.

Insurance provided for temporary housing expenses for one year.  The year has elapsed.  The Craigs and Vine & Fig Tree, Inc. do not have the financial means to pay for everything.  Rent, the mortgage on the property under construction, the additional medical expenses for Marybeth's care . . . even with homeowner's and health insurance, the costs of tornado damages and injuries are very overwhelming.
The disaster may prove an opportunity:  The home is being rebuilt as a duplex which can be leased or sold as an income producing property for the benefit of the Craigs and V&FT, IF AND WHEN IT IS FINISHED.

This opportunity may yet turn into tragedy:  The Craigs must keep the mortgage paid or risk losing the newly rebuilt property to foreclosure.  Temporary housing rent and utilities must be paid for the Craigs to have a place to live until their home is ready for lease or sale.  Marybeth will continue to need medical care, skilled nursing, bathing assistance, medicines, diapers and many other costs that insurance does not cover. Insurance payments are delayed in the backlog of claims paperwork that the carrier is handling in the wake of Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast.  Dozens of telephone calls, emails and letters seem to fall on deaf ears.

Kevin was thinking he and his mother could live in the former home of Marybeth's parents, until we received an email from a cousin:

I do not think you have any idea that the ranch house is uninhabitable.  Two summers ago,  I took showers either in town or at the park. The shower flows at a trickle and drains even slower.  The toilet is suspect and to live there would mean a new septic system.  The pipes to the clothes washer will not work.  The roof leaks in many places.  The rats have many homes inside including the beds.  Finally, right now we are paying over $100  a month just to keep the temperature at 35 degrees.  You would be better to rent something than to try to pay a heating or cooling bill at that house.  Last summer I did not spend any nights at the ranch house, and of course we have not repaired anything in two summers.  To drag your mother and brother to that pit is a sin.

That's why were asking for your help during this time of urgent need.  Your generous and tax-deductible donations to Vine & Fig Tree, Inc. will be used to help real people in real distress in the wake of a real disaster.  And, Lord willing, the ministry of Vine & Fig Tree will live on -- when Kevin is no longer needed as 24-hour caregiver for his Mom and she has a new home in heaven.

Please mail your donation check to:

Vine & Fig Tree, Inc.
P.O. Box 179,
Powersite, MO 65731

Alternatively, you can use PayPal to safely transfer funds.

Thank you for your understanding and generosity. 

Your prayers will be enormously appreciated.

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Update: One of the staff at Future Men has expressed a willingness to build a library for Vine & Fig Tree, near the Future Men campus. This is awesome, but won't be finished until Fall. And the house should be re-built by then as well. But right now I have no income due to my health care responsibilities, and maxed-out credit cards, and I cannot fund the needs of Vine & Fig Tree during this gap. Your tax-deductible donation during this crisis period would be most appreciated. There is a great future for Vine & Fig Tree, I believe.

To explore the Vine & Fig Tree vision, click here.

What to do with murderers?

I'm often asked what society should do with murderers if we abolish "the State."

There are two tasks for the Body of Christ, in order to be salt and light in our world:

Task #1: How should Christians guide the human race in preventing murders?
Task #2: How should Christians guide the human race in dealing with murderers if we fail Task #1?

"The State" is usually the answer to #2: Execute murderers.
But "The State" is also involved in Task #1: First, virtually every State today prohibits State-run school teachers from teaching students that God in the Bible prohibits murder. Murder is never said to offed the God of the Bible, but only the State.

Second, "the State" commits more murders than "private sector" murderers by orders of magnitude. R.J. Rummel has written about "democide," government murder of "its own people." His higher estimates of internal government murder is a quarter of a billion people in the 20th century. Then there is war, government murder of the people of some other government. Higher estimates for WWII are 90 million. Total estimates for murder by war in the 20th century are again about a quarter of a billion people. That's over 10,000 murders PER DAY by the State, as compared with a similar number of private-sector murders in the U.S. PER YEAR.

And yet when I propose that the human race should agree that "Thou shalt not kill" should apply to everyone, even to the State, I'm told that (1) I'm "some kind of anarchist" (a person of bad moral character), and (2) "murderers will take over the world" if my utopian views are adopted.

It seems to me that murderers have ALREADY taken over the world, and their Trojan Horse was this institution called "The State." 10,000 murders a day. How could it be worse under principled Theonomic Christian-directed anarchy?

"The State" also legalizes the murder of the unborn, to the tune of 130,000 PER DAY worldwide.

I think Christians in the U.S. have the financial and media power to abolish all governments in the world. But that's another subject.

OK then, what do we do with murderers after we abolish the State (because we will have them, even in my utopian "Vine & Fig Tree" world)? More specifically, "What does God want us to do with a murderer?"

Does God want us to shed the murderer's blood to make atonement (Numbers 35:33)?

I don't think so.

I reject secular vengeance as a Biblical response.

So I have to admit I don't see a clear Biblical mandate for dealing with a murderer if we fail to prevent a murder. I tend to favor a form of lifetime restitution to the estate of the victim. In other words, the murderer is required to work for the victim's heirs for the rest of his life. This can be required but not compelled, as I suggest here (audio).

Why I Would Give Obama My Guns If He Asks

As a pacifist, I take Jesus seriously:

Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.

Of course, I would never give guns to someone with violent tendencies, like Barack "Fast and Furious" "Predator Drone" Obama. I would melt them down first.

But since I also take Isaiah and the Prophets seriously, I've already melted my guns down. "Swords into Plowshares."

As a pacifist, I'm a bit distressed at all the pro-gun, pro-resistance talk in conservative "constitutionalist" circles. It's gone beyond "You can have my guns when you pry them from my cold dead fingers."



With talk from the White House about going after guns, the pro-gun crowd is talking about "resistance." They expect to keep their fingers warm. The new popular phrase is the childish dare,  "Molon Labe" -- "Come and get 'em."

That means using their guns against "government gun-grabbers."

Are you insane, Mr. Labe? If a billionaire like Saddam Hussein cannot protect himself against U.S. weapons-grabbers, what makes you think you can?

The economic policies of the Bush-Obama regime have destroyed millions of jobs. Maybe your next-door neighbor has lost his job. In response, the government offers to "solve" unemployment by hiring and deputizing people to enforce Obama's gun control laws.

"Molon Labe" means you're willing to kill your next-door neighbor.

He's already called in back-up, of course, so you will be surrounded soon.

If you continue to resist, you will be killed.

It's just a matter of time.

The government will win this conflict against you and your "Second Amendment" and your pathetic "weapons cache."

In the meantime, your last act on earth was killing your next-door neighbor and attempting to "save America" by "drawing a line" and "standing up for the Constitution."

This is not what civilization is made of.

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I Repudiate the Second Amendment

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Pacifists are always asked, "What would you do if a rapist broke into your home and was going to rape your wife or daughter? Would you just let him?"

While no pacifist would intentionally kill the rapist, no serious pacifist (from blogger to scholar) would "just let him" have his way. Pacifists are against violence, so they employ hundreds of alternatives to lethal force in order to prevent violence.

What Would You Do If . . . ?   -- Pacifist alternatives to lethal force

But here's the question too few pacifists turn back at their non-pacifist Inquisitor: 

"What would YOU do if a rapist broke in your home: create a military-industrial complex to slaughter a hundred thousand Christians in Iraq?"

The answer is, YES, that's what non-pacifists do. They create "police" and "military" -- institutions of systematic violence and murder, funded by theft from others. They prefer their own "personal peace and affluence" over "Liberty Under God." Their world is ego-centered rather than God-centered. In order to avoid pacifism, they make it illegal for public school  teachers to teach students that God says in the Bible "Thou shalt not kill." The way of Christ the "Prince of Peace" is derided as "impractical," "unrealistic," and "utopian."

In a Christian pacifist world, we all dwell safely -- more or less -- under our own Vine & Fig Tree. 

In a secular non-pacifist world, we annihilate each other. Tax-funded Democide.

Each one of us is going to die eventually. Hundreds of millions more human beings will live longer if each of us preaches peace and lives it out in our lives.

Social Apologetics

My article "Social Apologetics," published 30 years ago (gasp!) by Gary North, was referred to recently on a blog called "Talk to Action," an anti-Religious Right blog.

Theocratic Libertarianism: Quotes from Gary North, Ludwig von Mises Institute Scholar

I would like to correct that article to reflect my rejection of capital punishment,but also subject the article to wholesale re-writing under the title "Anarchist Apologietics."

Someday.

"Trade Deficit" Confusion

Don Boudreaux writes:

It’s child’s play to give examples of how America’s trade deficit can rise without Americans’ debt rising or Americans’ asset holdings falling. And all children above the age of six should be able to follow these examples. Here’s just one example: Valerie in Virginia buys $1 of shoelaces from Hans in Hamburg. Hans adds his $1 to $999,999 of his German friends’ dollars that his friends (and now he) use to open a restaurant in Miami. America’s trade deficit rises as [a] result of Valerie’s purchase of foreign-made shoelaces. Yet no American is any more deeply in debt as a result; this transaction hasn’t caused Americans’ debt to rise by as much as a single cent. And no American’s (or Americans’) asset holdings are reduced by even a single cent.

For this and more, see:

• A Holiday Open Letter to Ian Fletcher

• Continuing Correspondence with Ian Fletcher
• A Follow-up to Ian Fletcher

Don't "Buy American" if buying Canadian is cheaper for the same or better quality.

• Trade

Susan Marie Weber Wins Seat on Palm Desert City Council

My campaign Treasurer, Susan Marie Weber, has won a very close election for Palm Desert (CA) City Council. The results were just certified, weeks after the election was held, following multiple re-counts.

I'd offer congratulations, but I wouldn't want that job, and I'll bet Springfield (MO) Councilman Doug Burlison will agree, it ain't gonna be easy.

Liberty is never easy.

And advocates for liberty are often the first to criticize Libertarians who actually get elected.

Best wishes to SusanMarie!

A Top LP Congressional Campaign

Top 2012 Libertarian Campaigns for US House of Representatives
posted by Staff on Nov 13, 2012
LP.org

My percentage was higher in 2010, but the vote count was higher this year.

Six Campaigns, 2002-2012

Politics and the Polis

The word "politics" comes from the Greek word polis, which referred to the Greek City-State.

POLIS: The Empire of Man vs. the City of God

Man was originally placed in a Garden, and the original "American Dream" -- as well as the paradigm of human happiness in the Bible -- is a world where everyone dwells securely under his own "Vine and Fig Tree."

Vine and Fig Tree: "The American Dream"

It was the first murderer who became the first "urban planner."

Thesis 15: Cain’s City: The Autonomy of the State

And yet the goal of human history is described in the Bible as "The City of God."

Thesis 93: The City of God

Is an escape from the city into rural living an escape from social responsibility? Historically, Christians have been willing to remain in areas which were decimated by plague in order to minister to the sick, while others fled the cities to save themselves, thereby fleeing Christian civilization into a pagan barbarism

Then, when the great plagues swept Rome and all the doctors fled, the Christians stayed and took care of the sick. They did what we're called to do as Christians. As a result, even though they often died in the process of taking care of the sick, people wanted to become Christians because it was a better life than pagans and they saw something they wanted.
Interview with Chuck Colson

Is it true that the City allows human beings to better develop the "division of labor?"

Capitalism, Predestination, and The Invisible Hand

Isn't our goal to move from poverty to dominion and wealth?

Dominion, Wealth, and Postmillennianalism

The Ancient City did not even have the ideal of freedom, just as Americans have lost the original "American Dream" and the understanding that the Biblical word for "salvation" means "being set into a large, open space":

The Ancient City: I'm Dreaming of a Large Christmas

How would cities develop under freedom in the absence of the institutionalized violence of the State?

Some possible answers might be found in a recent book by Harvard economist Edward L. Glaeser:

The Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier

Radio KSGF Interview

Listen on the KSGF website:

http://www.ksgf.com/podcasts/reedpodcast/176969741.html

Or click here to listen.

The interview with Democrat candidate Jim Evans is here.

Or click here to listen.

The Republican incumbent parted with Todd Akin and joined liberals to vote to increase the debt limit by over a trillion dollars, and voted in favor of appropriations to Planned Parenthood. (Boasting of planned spending cuts in the debt limit bill, I believe he now opposes those cuts.)

Here's something to think about:

The Constitution creates the Congress in Article 1. In a sense, Congress is the most important branch of government. The Executive Branch is created in Article 2, simply to execute the laws created by the Legislative Branch (Article 1), and thus, in a sense, subordinate to Congress. The Judicial Branch, Article 3, has no authority to make laws.

Obviously, the Constitution has been turned on its head.

The men who framed the Constitution would agree that your vote for your Representative is more important than your vote for President.

Christian Hypocrisy and RomneyLogic

The Top Billion Reasons To Not Vote for Mitt Romney: 
Bob Enyart interviews pro-life activist Will Duffy on the top billion reasons to not vote for Mitt Romney.

Click here to listen to Part 1 - Show notes here.

Click here to listen to Part 2 - Show notes here.

www.examiner.com interview

http://www.examiner.com/article/kevin-craig-libertarian-for-congress-missouri-s-7th-congressional-district

Go there and leave a comment.

Links omitted:

On not imposing my will on others by force, see:

http://IAmNotAnARCHIST.us

On why the government prohibits Christians from taking the oath to "support the Constitution," see:

http://KevinCraig.us/nolawyer.htm

Not omitted, but more information on why the federal government prohibits local schools from teaching students that the Declaration of Independence is really true, see:

http://KevinCraig.us/schools.htm

On the Supreme Court's "Endorsement Test," see:

http://KevinCraig.us/EndTheWall/endorse.htm

Conservatives Can't Vote for Romney

“Why NO True Libertarian, NO True Ron Paul Supporter, NO True Tea Partier Will Even Consider Voting For Big Government Mitt Romney for President”

True Libertarians, True Ron Paul Supporters, True Tea Partiers:

• Vote AGAINST Higher Federal Tax Collections
• Vote AGAINST Higher Federal Spending
• Vote AGAINST Higher Federal Debt

We ALWAYS Vote AGAINST Candidates Who:

• Vote FOR Higher Federal Tax Collections
• Vote FOR Higher Federal Spending
• Vote FOR Higher Federal Debt

Look at the Mitt Romney / Paul Ryan Republican Budget Numbers Below.

Then Vote AGAINST the Anti-Libertarian, Anti-Ron Paul, Anti-Tea Party Republican Presidential Ticket on Election Day. 

Romney/Ryan Republican Federal Budget Plan Boosts Tax Collections 88%, Hikes Federal Spending 35%, and ADDS $4 Trillion to the National Debt

Here are Paul Ryan's own hard numbers on his budget plan (S1)

http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/summary_tables.pdf

Paul Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" Budget Plan:

1. Increases Federal Government Tax Collections from $2.444 Trillion to $4.601 Trillion. A $2.157 Federal Tax Collection Increase. An 88% Tax Collection Increase.
    
2. Increases Federal Government Spending from $3.624 Trillion to $4.888 Trillion. A $1.264 Trillion Increase in Federal Government Spending. A 35% Increase.
    
3. ADDS $4 Trillion to the National Debt.

Libertarian Presidential Candidate, 2-Term Governor Gary Johnson, has pledged to cut spending 43% to balance the federal budget his first year in office.

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Source: Press Release from lp.org

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Not to mention the fact that Romney is pro-homosexual, pro-abortion, and pro-war.
What exactly are conservatives who vote for Romney trying to conserve?

BB's Conservative Wisdom Endorses Kevin Craig

BBCW Endorses Kevin Craig for Congress in Missouri 7