Local author explores 'Christian anarchy': Tripp York will hold book signing Sunday at Barnes & Noble

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From Trading Markets.com

You might fairly describe Burlington native Tripp York as a Renaissance man.

He's known for his acting and has worked as assistant technical director at Burlington's Paramount Theater. He has taught religion at Elon University for five years.

York has written three books, co-authored another and and has more on the way.

His latest is called"Living on Hope While Living in Babylon: The Christian Anarchists of the 20th Century." York will sign the book from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Barnes & Noble in Alamance Crossing in Burlington. He'll also sign two other books he has written: "The Purple Crown -- the Politics of Martyrdom" and a novella called "Anesthesia." He has also co-authored a book called "Calculated Futures: Theology, Ethics and Economics." His newest book examines the lives and activities of people York describes as "Christian anarchists." York builds the book around opposition to what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called the "triple axis of evil:" materialism, racism and militarism..

These are people York says adhered to the standards of scripture as they understood it -- including a "literal understanding of the Beatitudes," which are part of Christ's Sermon on the Mount teachings -- at the expense of obeying the government, church leadership or other influences in society.

York said the people he writes about often received "greater criticism from the church than from the government." That may not be surprising, he said, given the example of Christ and others in scripture.

While Christ was executed by the Romans, he was "utterly despised" by some of the religious leaders of his time.

His book includes the Catholic Worker Movement;

two priests who were listed on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted Lists due to their protests of what they believe was wrong with government and society; a Baptist farmer and Greek scholar kicked out of his church for working to integrate it racially; and the creator of a community that evolved into Habitat for Humanity.

York has been an instructor of religious studies at Elon for five years. He is about to move to Kentucky to pursue teaching, writing and theater opportunities.

He has more books in the works, including a children's book that tells stories from the perspective of animals in scripture.

York is a 1991 graduate of Williams High School. He earned an undergraduate degree from Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville,Tenn., where he majored in religious studies and dramatic arts. He graduated with a master's degree in theological ethics from Duke University and earned a doctorate at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary on the campus of Northwestern University in Illinois.

Haha. Ironic picture.

Haha. Ironic picture.

Let's practise here our

Let's practise here our street-corner politics: if a real anarchist and a Christian anarchist were working the same street corner, how would the real anarchist do a hatchet job on the Christian? Answer: the Christian claim that one can base one's social practice on the bible is, to anyone with a handful of relevant quotations, ridiculous: when the sodomites come to the door in expectation that the visitor will be handed over for them to gang rape, the Good Christian offers his daughter instead. Put it on the Christian, in public: in a similar situation, would you hand YOUR daughter over?

In any situation in which there is a 'triangle': (you, the other guy, and various listeners), use the illogic of the other guy's position to make him look ridiculous.

This approach -- consciously using every street-corner moment to make succinct and incisive attacks upon the logic of your interlocutor -- is one I have developed over the years. With respect, talk about smashing the system and Venturing into the Creative Unknown is simply politically counterproductive. Each and every interaction between an activist(you) and others must be seen as a chance to leave an impression on the minds of those others of the validity and everyday viability of your argument. We want -- we desperately need -- our ideas to be worming their way into the dinner-table conversations of Mr and Mrs Suburb. ('Well yeh, but the guy had a good point . . . ')
Mark

The trilogy in Australia is

The trilogy in Australia is the union jack still in the right hand corner of the national flag,a 1901 constitution and the international reputation as the open cut mine of a commodity primary supplier via puppet government to the highest bidder,,,,a very archaic demographic landscape of oppression,particularly for the indiginous peoples,who i think you all generally refer to in a disparaging fashion as abos,short for aboriginal race. mountainman

PS,,to belt bible bashers is

PS,,to belt bible bashers is passe, mountainman

"The trilogy in Australia is

"The trilogy in Australia is the union jack still in the right hand corner of the national flag,a 1901 constitution and the international reputation as the open cut mine of a commodity primary supplier via puppet government to the highest bidder,,,,a very archaic demographic landscape of oppression,particularly for the indiginous peoples,who i think you all generally refer to in a disparaging fashion as abos,short for aboriginal race." mountainman

never used or heard the term abo myself. i am known to speak of "the aboriginals" though usually i simply say "indigenous of the landmass called_____________by many (in this case austrailia)", but that is because i do not know an incredible amount about the area, what people tended to call themselves and this is what most outsiders know these peoples as anyway (though i would be happy to use proper names, when not being too general, in which case i actually use the catchall of indigenous, if i knew them). yeah, that has to be the only genocide, at least that i know of, and of course keeping in context of population size, that was even more total than what happened on this landmass that many mistakenly call america and that for convience i too find myself having to, that or U.S. but then again the same is true of the word austrailia, i would assume. of course if you go by individual cultures, rather than the mistaken notions like race, there are probably a slew of absolute or near absolute genocides. i am usually not too much of a stickler for the language other people use if i don't happen to smell xenophobia or other forms of ignorance that go beyond a choice of words...however, in my own case, i just have a thing: i just gotta peg things as accurately as i am capable of.

i get wound up,a bit harsh

i get wound up,a bit harsh on Mark,,,i think its another cabinfever thing,gotta go outside and walk this off,,,but yeah i like your accuracy.catch ya mountainman

Until the christian points

Until the christian points out you could be the sodomite anarchist there to gang rape in the name of chaos.

thus spaketh me the lord of spin.

It is Hakim at the door and

It is Hakim at the door and he does not want your daughter but your little boys little penis instead.

An anarchist book-signing at

An anarchist book-signing at a mainstream bookstore and the twit has to be a fucking christian.

Can't we get anything right?

Well... at least we have Derrick Jensen...
{shrugs shoulders, lowers head and sulks away}

fear not comrade

fear not comrade

Jensen is a

Jensen is a celebrity-obsessed wannabe. He's never declared that he's an anarchist precisely because he isn't one. He has no use for anyone who doesn't share his analysis 100%, and he finds any criticism of his writings to be "attacks." Fuck him and his fragile ego.

"Jensen is a

"Jensen is a celebrity-obsessed wannabe. He's never declared that he's an anarchist precisely because he isn't one. He has no use for anyone who doesn't share his analysis 100%, and he finds any criticism of his writings to be "attacks." Fuck him and his fragile ego."

actually, while i feel jensen can be a bit of a moralist in some things he says, and while the rhetoric can get repetitive, i find his books to be good reads by and large. and what are you refering to, by the way? accusations of being genocidal, like so many primitivists and similar people are quite used to (and some of us almost find comical by now) on part of people who want to scream about mass die off (which neither jensen nor any of us in the plethora of "anti-civ factions", for lack of a better term have ever advocated for, nor sterilization, there is a difference between anti-civ anarchsits and ecofascists for fuck sake!) yet deny the ongoing mass die off that effecting multiple species, including our own, that happens exactly because of civilization? it isn't relevant to bring up to these people that if they want to sit there and yell at people who are opposed to civilization perhaps there time could be better spent finding ways to soften such a blow (well, if they weren't so deluded as to think civilization could actually be saved and that we would not be slaves still if it could anyway, but then i can't tell others what to think, just poke holes in what they say and hope they are paying attention)? the trajectory is mass extinction people, that is where this is going. oh sure, it may be in a year or it may be in a couple hundred, but that is why it is a trajectory. oh and yeah, anything is possible, maybe some miracle technology will come about that will save us all because it will be free from the expansionism that is built into everything we have known so far...but pay attention to the world's of tomorrow presented in our past and the way this has always played out and it doesn't give one very much, or really any, cause for optimism in my view. anything may be possible, but some things, i am sorry to say, just are not bloody fucking likely.

If Derrick Jensen is the

If Derrick Jensen is the only thing we got, we're in some serious shit.

we have ourselves.... dont

we have ourselves....

dont forget that.

become the wepon we need,
write the books we need,
do the work that must be done!

I want to know why

I want to know why mainstream bookstores sell Jensen's knew book and that comic book and Endgame but not The Culture of Make Believe or A Language Older Than Words. Those are the books the need more readers.

"I want to know why

"I want to know why mainstream bookstores sell Jensen's knew book and that comic book and Endgame but not The Culture of Make Believe or A Language Older Than Words. Those are the books the need more readers."

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....actually i think i saw those books in half price books a couple of times. i know they have them at the library cause that is where i got them when i read them.

Yeah, I read them from the

Yeah, I read them from the library too. Last time I was at the library all of Jensen's books were checked out, which i would see as a pretty positive sign.

Actually, the book

Actually, the book criticizes anarchism for its indebtedness to modernity and its arrival as a reactionary ideology--therein being defined by what it is against (i.e., the nation-state). He argues for an apocalyptic politic that is akin to anarchism but is 'anarchistic' toward all political ideologies, even anarchism. Nevertheless, I would think it wise that before bashing the book one would at least read it. I'm quite sure the first step of literary criticism is actually reading the material. There is actually much to learn from it in terms of its narration of violence, racism and capitalism. It contains an interesting juxtaposition of Malcolm X, King, and Clarence Jordan.

Oh, and by the way, if you buy a book at a mainstream bookstore you are automatically a twit as only underground bookstores sell books worthy of the elitist anarchist.

Heh, you guys are really destroying the system with your internet blogging. Way to go.

Just as all Christians are

Just as all Christians are "called" to the church, was this guy "called" to anarchism or did he use his own free thinking mind and say "fuck you god, no gods, no masters, I'm goin' to be an anarchist"?
ann arky www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Who "called" you to be an

Who "called" you to be an asshole?

ZING!

Where would we find this

Where would we find this book wholesale? Our collective-space would love to carry a copy or two. People took home our copies of Anarchy and Christianity so fast, it was amazing!

Wipf & Stock Publishers in

Wipf & Stock Publishers in Oregon (google them...it is actually cheaper through their site I believe), or amazon.com...though that may be beneath some of the upper-echelon anarchists here.

I won't be satisfied until

I won't be satisfied until the last "christian anarchist" is hung from the guts of the last "national anarchist".

seriously though, how the fuck can anybody call themselves a christian anarchist? how can any halfway sensible person ignore the genocide and colonization of indeginous people worldwide, the european witch-hunt femicide, the crusades, global child molestation, hundred of years of scamming everyone's grammas of their money, the eternal postponement of revolutionary action in favor of "faith" in a "better hereafter"? how can anyone simultaneously support the abolition of prisons and the concept of eternal damnation? how can someone be an anti-authoritarian for that dicatorial phantom yahweh? for reals, yo, we gots to chase the xtians from our ranks. I'd rather roll with church-burning Norwegian black metal neo-nazi meth addicts then the most well-intentioned pacifistic Tolstoy milquetoast any day.

and motherfuckas signing is at Barnes and noble, of all the vile capitalist instiutions!

barnes and noble does to independant bookstores what starbucks does to independent cafes, namely, puts em the fuck out of business. The only reason any anarchist should set foot in that cesspool of commercialism is to steal they shit. Not only that, B&N owns Ingram, the largest book distribution company on the planet. which means they have effective control of what books get published and distributed. Barnes and Noble is the single greatest enemy of free speech in the field of print. but obviously they got no beef with such toothless recuperation.

anyway, I think this fool is whack as fuck. Christians are stupid.

"I'd rather roll with

"I'd rather roll with church-burning Norwegian black metal neo-nazi meth addicts then the most well-intentioned pacifistic Tolstoy milquetoast any day."

Yep, that just about says it all ... and then we wonder why no one takes anarchism seriously.

no one takes anarchism

no one takes anarchism seriously cuz yall don't do shit but ride your bikes in circles in intersections. burn some shit down now and then and see how seriously people take you.

and I dig how you take the

and I dig how you take the most sensational sentence in that thing and critique that, rather then making any points against the rest of the diatribe. srsly, give me one good reason why, as an anarchist, I should tolerate xtians? If we ain't down to execute the pope, then either I misunderstood some shit or y'all have gone soft.

"execute the pope" ...

"execute the pope" ... listen to yourself; that sounds absolutely ridiculous.

It's not about going soft; it's about being smart about what we do and what we say. The sort of rhetoric you're deploying alienates people. If you envision anarchism as a politics of alienation and intolerance, it will never regain the traction it once had (what little of it there was).

As for specific responses to the "history" you narrate ... there a plenty of sources that provide a balanced look at stuff like the Crusades, witch hunts, etc ... . Anarchists like to say they're philosophical materialists; well I can guarantee to you that the foundations of ALL those things have far more rational causes (i.e.: economics & politics) at their root than "oh Christians just went around and killed people b/c the God & the Bible told them to." The sort of superficial reductionism you're slinging around is sophomoric to say the least.

I agree to an extent, that

I agree to an extent, that Anarchism need not be so essentialist, however I would remind you that anarchism had its highest degree of traction when we were killing nuns, priests, bishops and monks, burning churches and defiling crucifixes and Christ icons. Not that I'm saying that that's a good thing.

Goddamnit (hehe, just had to

Goddamnit (hehe, just had to throw that in there with all this talk about jesus freaks). So if you believe something that I find stupid, I should execute you? (ok, the pope wields power, so perhaps there is something legitimate in your statement, but execution is too stately- if you have personal beef, go get him yourself- personally i think the pope and the very concept of a pope absolutely crazy/stupid, but i'm not wasting my energy on him) But Christians? I have several Christian friends. I love them and consider them part of my tribe. I do believe they are misguided (and deluded), but so long as they are not forcing their beliefs on me (and none of my Christian friends believe in forcing their beliefs on anyone) why should I care? I have a few wacky beliefs myself- you gonna execute me? You authoritarian fucko, go join the Communist Party.

"for reals, yo, we gots to

"for reals, yo, we gots to chase the xtians from our ranks"
Whose ranks? I'm not part of any party or any military or anything else. If someone wants to believe that wacky shit, who am i to 'purge' them? So long as they aren't trying to push it on me through violence or government or incessant preaching, i don't give a fuck. The anarchists that piss me off aren't anarchists of one streak or another, but individual people who think there is some sort of party line- wait maybe that means that i don't care for the whole platformist thing- haha, well anyways- to all the bolshi purists and closet authoritarians- fuck off!

You said it perfectly, I

You said it perfectly, I think it's enough that we have too many people with such a warped authoritarian mentality, or anarchists that are so absurdly sexist or racist among other things. I have yet to come across an actual anarchist though, it doesn't help that I'm in Pittsburgh perhaps.

"Seriously though......How

"Seriously though......How can anybody....?"

The same way people justify their version of--------------, as better than another version.

for example :

I won't be satisfied until the last "christian anarchist" is hung from the guts of the last "national anarchist".

my opinion is that is pretty (quote above) limited view of anarchism as a way of life, which makes it pretty authoritarian.

Well, if they are Mennonite,

Well, if they are Mennonite, Hutterite, Brethren or Amish then they are not ignoring genocide and all the stupid shit perpetrated in the name of a nonviolent first century Jew. Not every Christian endorses all that shit. That is like saying the Buddhists in North Korea are like the Buddhists in Tibet, despite being completely different human beings who are radically critical of one another. Has anyone actually read the book? I would think that if anyone wishes to take our rambling seriously that someone would actually read the book on its own merit prior to playing incessant violins about how pissy you are that someone hijacked your title as the anarchist of anarchists. Maybe that fool is whack as fuck, which, by the way, is very eloquently stated, but perhaps you should at least look at the lives lived by people such as Dorothy Day, Clarence Jordan and Philip Berrigan, as at least those "stupid" Christians spent many years in jail protesting the very thing you are complaining about. Have you been imprisoned in federal prisons over these issues? Or is bitching on the internet your means of fighting injustice?

There are also 190,000 new books published a year...a book gets into bookstores based on the marketing skills of the publisher and the ruckus it makes on the lower levels. Not because of some bogus secret committees launching a conspiracy against us. Shit, I went to one yesterday and they were carrying books by Russell Means, Chomsky, Mary Daly, and Bakunin. Yeah, really keeping us down.

Regardless of the legitamacy

Regardless of the legitamacy of the author, in my opinion Christian anarchists are no different then regular anarchists. Anarchists who disregard an anarchist because of his/her religion are no different then people who dress up in white robes and have barbecues.

.... ahaha...

.... ahaha...

"The Purple Crown -- the

"The Purple Crown -- the Politics of Martyrdom"

yeah, what we really need is more martyrs and more "witnessing". fuck.

Okay, I owe the site an

Okay, I owe the site an apology. I logged on with the intent of expressing my dismay that – it seemed – no one had cavilled at the fact that theonlysun81 had equated me with the Ku Klux Klan. However, a number of people have indeed waded in; and Anon has out-succincted me: 'I think this fool is whack as fuck. Christians are stupid.'

I've noticed that a number of posts concern 'burnin' shit' – that is, what measures are we to take in what circumstances? Careful what you wish for, comrades!! [Note here in brackets: I assume that an 'anarchist' is a very very serious creature indeed. Let us have only scorn for the person who thinks that an 'anarchist' is something you can be by just tossing the word about. “What's your thing?” 'Oh, I'm an anarchist.' “Cool! I collect Donald Duck comics.” This is unashamedly personal for me. I have only to close my eyes and I'm in the Gallery of Images: a comrade of mine – some student whose name I never even learned – pressed hard against my shoulder in the crush, takes a bullet in the face . . . ]

'Commensurate violence': yes, the ruling class will visit violence upon us – but that's not the point. The point is to persuade million and millions and millions of people to join us on the streets and deconstruct the system; and although, yes, torching buildings will impassion them, it's not the sort of passion that we need. Moreover, the buildings with the bad guys in tend to be well guarded. What tends to get burnt are malls and factories – and wouldn't it be more helpful in the long run to have those resources to hand?

If they act violently against us, we bring to bear against them what force we have – but commensurately. I ask for the opinions of others on this site who have first-hand experience of an insurrection or revolution. Were your experiences parallel to mine? We found that confusion and fear and violence were to be had in abundance. Coherence and clarity, meanwhile, were in short supply. As the situation deteriorated, the possibilities of promulgating any sort of coherent and helpful information become scarce indeed; and meanwhile, comrades were turning up in ditches.

Fantastically, I advocate taking a leaf from the book of the party communists: Organise! Be fluid, knowledgeable, savvy, articulate. We spend so much time here squabbling over sub-distinction 174 of anarcho-whatsit. I don't remember anyone ever stating their political current. That is, no one ever said, 'I am an anarchist, Therefore, we should . . . ' What was of sole concern was what action was to be taken. So, strengthening our basic knowledge of politics and metaphysics, for example – theonlysun81 take note, please – should be of far more importance than anything else. No amount of boxes of matches is a substitute for the power of information and logic in the right place at the right time.

'a truly epic capacity for organization . . . ' [P. 23 'The Anarchists in the Russian Revolution,' Avrich, P.]

Mark

"a truly epic capacity for

"a truly epic capacity for organization..'Yep,seperates the anarchists from the communists.How practically inconvenient. mountainman

Anyway,the moralist has to

Anyway,the moralist has to possess the infallible credentials,very rare,to have never sinned.Let us throw the first stone as amoralists at the oppressor instead,at the legislator from authoritarian realms however diverse,who follow the predictable pursuit of petty obsessional pruritanism,and deny us the egalitarian desire fore justice. mountainman

Wow. Stellar criticism of

Wow. Stellar criticism of the book. Did you read it? I did. It gives a nice critique of the nation-state. Granted, it is a Christian book written by a Christian for Christians, so I would not expect that you would enjoy it (nor is that the intent of the author). But, as someone mentioned earlier in this thread, the first step of literary criticism is actually reading the text.

arguments on here are a

arguments on here are a mostly worthless distraction from lived life. Go and do. If you're religious, cool. Fight injustice from where you stand. If you're not religious, or just agnostic, cool. Fight injustice from where you stand.

Now, Go....

And its time YOU

And its time YOU go,yes,,you,,Now go please,,NOW!No excuses.

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