Anarchist and Christ-follower?

Often I get a question that goes something like:

How can you be an anarchist AND a Christian? Doesn’t being a member of a religion inherently contradict the anarchist belief system?

I don’t maintain a religion. Religions are institutionalized and organized - I think religions ultimately lose focus of their foundational goals and intended purposes and become an extremely coercive hierarchical power structure. 

Jesus didn’t come to start a religion. On the contrary, he preached against every religion he encountered; Jesus argued that religions were both hypocritical and corrupt. We ought to be the church, not necessarily go to church. He said that when two people meet, “I am there, too.”

As for anarchism - anarchism is against, “institutionalized coercion” and having a “monopoly on force”.

There is a tremendous difference between being subjected to the rule and authority of the State and making a decision to follow Jesus. Under statism, there is the presence of coercion and force. Following Jesus is a choice. That’s the important distinction to be made.

So, anarchism is against rule through the use of force. It would be a tremendous oversimplification of the philosophy of anarchism if one just said, “Anarchists cannot serve anything.” Anarchists simply reject coercive rule and authority through force.

However, I freely choose to follow Christ - I am not coerced or forced to follow Jesus.

Quite honestly, I feel that anarchism is the logical conclusion of Christ’s teachings. There are inherent aspects of Jesus’s message that lead to the rejection of the state (not resisting evil, not serving two masters, not judging, loving your enemy, not fighting evil with evil, etc.).