St Joseph's Day Reflections For Anti-Statists

 by Joe Siano

 

March 19 is the feast day of my namesake St. Joseph.

St. Joe is the quiet man of Scripture.  He never says a word.  Yet his story and that of his adopted son speak volumes about the dangers and failings of the State.

The Busybody State & The Road to Bethlehem (Luke 2: 1 5)

Information is power.  As always, the State demands to know everything about everybody.  Thus, Caesar declared a census that compelled Joseph and his nine-month pregnant wife, Mary, to take a harsh four day journey, at their own expense, to enroll and be counted.

Never mind that the God of the Jews forbade any government-initiated counting of his people.  The State cares little for the laws and precepts of any faith.  Its law is supreme.

An Enemy of the State – The Newborn King (Matthew 2: 1-4)

King Herod was a practicing Jew, awaiting the long-anticipated Messiah.  Yet, he was none too pleased to hear that the heir to David’s throne, the rightful King of the Jews, might arrive on his watch.  Herod plotted to terminate new King’s reign before it began.  With extreme prejudice.

Deception, Lies and Mass Murder (Matthew 2: 7 & 13-18)

Herod’s plot to crush his infant rival was to trick the Magi into identifying the baby to him “so that I too may go and worship him”.  Herod’s true agenda was “to search for the child to kill him.”  Power is a false god that demands blood sacrifice..

The Wise Men got wise to Herod’s chicanery and left town before he knew it.  Not being one to take chances, Herod killed all of Bethlehem’s baby boys.  Stalin would one day quip, "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic."

The State Creates Refugees

Joseph got out before this Slaughter of the Innocents, taking Jesus and Mary to hide in Egypt until Herod passed away.

Truth Suppression (Matthew 14: 1-11)

Skip ahead about thirty years when a new Herod is in charge.  Herod scandalized his throne by unlawfully “having” his brother’s wife.

Joseph’s nephew, John, called him on this.  For this effrontery, he was jailed and his head was chopped off.  The state was, is and will continue to be intolerant of truth tellers.

State Failure In Its Primary Mission – Protecting Citizens (Matthew 27, John 19, Luke 23 )

Classical Liberalism, going back to Locke, holds that humans in the state of nature “conditionally transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better ensure the stable, comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property.”

Jefferson echoed this sentiment in the Declaration of Independence: “That to secure these rights (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness) Governments are instituted among Men”.

SCOTUS feels otherwise. It determined in DeShaney vs. Winnebago and Town of Castle Rock vs. Gonzales that America’s police, nor any other government agency is obligated to protect us.  In fact they often shoot and abuse us.  After all isn’t that what ignited BLM summer in 2020?  

Beyond our shore, the America’s foreign policy adventurism generates terrorist “blowback”.  Chalmers Johnson, a former CIA consultant, described how the U.S. global hegemony invites  “retaliation for the numerous illegal operations we have carried out abroad that were kept totally secret from the American public”. 

Thus not only does the State not protect us, it actually makes life more hazardous.

When Joseph’s son, Jesus, stood trial, Pilate found Christ to be innocent declaring, “I find no basis for a charge against him.” However, pressure from the mob intensified.

Pilate sent Jesus to Herod who also found Christ guilty of no crime. Nonetheless, Jesus was brutally flogged to

placate the crowd.  When this failed satisfy their bloodlust, Pilate washed his hands of the whole affair and condemned him to crucifixion.

This was not the first time nor the last time that the State failed in its duty to protect its people.

The Great Hersey (John 19: 19)

Lost amongst the many crimes and transgressions in the Passion is the single worst heresy in Scripture:

Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.

But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.

Wrong. Dead wrong.

Related Articles:

Rothbard on Ireland and the Stateless Society - A St. Patty's Day Special

David, Absalom, Prosecutors and Cops

 

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