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).