The Story

The following is a true story that happened last week, i.e. Dec 2021 (names and identities changed)

A person near and dear to me (let's call him "Gerald") recently lived out the principles of autonomy, voluntaryism, liberty and anarchism, took on a State-aligned large corporate employer bureaucracy (let's say a hospital system) and won! Put differently and equivalently, this person lived out genuine Christian faith, choosing to trust in the provisions of God, risking monetary loss arising from obedience to moral/natural law, and not bending the knee to tyrants, and still ending up winning (yes, we are Christians, and I believe that Christianity necessarily implies anarchism).

In this case, it may have helped a little that the corporation considered Gerald inconvenient to easily replace, in a climate where many others got termination letters -- and yet, no one, not him, nor I, nor our mutual friends, expected anything less than termination -- with the goal of this confrontation being simply to not go down without a fight.

Gerald had a remote instructional employment with this corporation. The corporation made jab mandates for ALL. Gerald wrote their own 'religious exemption' -- simply said in email "I don't support anything that arises from baby murder (abortion)" and did not fill out all the laborious jump-these-hoop forms or get an "official" religious clergy signature, simply because Gerald did not believe anyone needs to do that.

They approved the exemption request and then said Gerald needs to test multiple times a week at their own expense (note that this is a fully remote position!). The corporation said that the State required it of all employees -- even fully remote ones. Gerald sent another detailed email essentially expressing disappointment and saying "sorry, I can't do arbitrary non-scientific rituals" and backed it up with tons of papers and data from CDC.

Finally, the corporation said they accept Gerald's answer and will not require testing, because (in writing) "Gerald is remote"! The official policy now looks different -- it now seems that legal got involved and quietly dropped the requirement that remote workers need testing, but, they are not loudly publicizing it, to save face!

My reflections

I talk big game about Christian anarchism, but fail to consistently walk the walk, for fear of loss of income and conveniences and the fear of increased suffering (which is inconsistent with Christ's command to "take up our cross and follow Him", i.e. make sacrifices in our effort and calling to bring about justice and peace). However, this loved one actually followed through on "obeying God and disobeying tyrants...on not trusting in horses and chariots" (this income stream was quite important to the family and not something that was an optional cherry on top). This is sobering, edifying, inspiring and sharpening.