Patriarchy

Our thesis has been called “patriarchy,” and from time to time in this draft the word “patriarchy” will be found. Among contemporary fringe groups “patriarchy” is defended, including polygamy and male-dominance. Our use of the word has little to do with these groups, but simply indicates a family-centered society functioning without other institutional competition (from Church or State). Specifically, we mean

• Individually: a traditional-values family which does not engage in "archist" behavior. When a Christian patriarch needs food for his family, he does not pass a law to confiscate food from others. He grows some food or trades his goods and services with others in a peaceful, voluntary exchange. When a son or daughter of a Christian patriarch needs training in righteousness and the "admonition of the Lord," the Christian patriarch does not go to a teachers' union looking for a priest.
• Socially: "Patriarchy," therefore, as used in this thesis, refers to a situation where families obey God's Law and provide social order. Property is safe from "the State" because Christian patriarchs don't form "states." Priests and kings are nowhere to be found because they are everywhere to be found: every Christian patriarch has been ordained a priest and a king under Christ. The institutional church and state arise only when patriarchs are not fulfilling their duties — and in a Christlike manner.
• We don't know what else to call a society where there is no "church" and no "state," only God's own institution, the Family, providing the moral and spiritual foundation for a humane economy. We vacillate between “patriarchy” and “anarcho-theocracy” as appropriate terms.