Survivalism Vs. Christianity

[Cure of Ars]

Due to current turbulent times I have found myself being attracted to survivalism and the prepper lifestyle. There are so many unknowns and dangers that can befall anyone at any moment that it feels foolish not to prepare for the worst. I feel the need to store years worth of food and water for my family to survive any possible calamity. But I have something that pulls on my conscious. Biblical verses like the following haunt my decisions on how much to invest into prepping.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat (or drink), or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?' or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?' All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. (Matthew 6:25-32)

Then he told them a parable. "There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, 'What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?' And he said, 'This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, "Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!" But God said to him, 'You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?' Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God." He said to (his) disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Notice the ravens: they do not sow or reap; they have neither storehouse nor barn, yet God feeds them. How much more important are you than birds! Can any of you by worrying add a moment to your lifespan? If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest? (Luke 12:16-26)

Now if didn’t worry about my life I would not invest much into prepping. So how much should be invested into worse case scenarios? Is a bug out bag and a bug out retreat biblical? Even birds migrate south for the winter. 1...2...3...DEBATE

[sixpence]

I think a lot of people feel that storing up for the winter, so to speak, is more justified when a whole family is involved. A single person, storing up things, and become a hair obsessed with possible future scenarios would probably be looked down upon...but this is just society's viewpoint...

For the Christian standpoint, I think you have brought up a good passage. I don't think the amount of things you store up really makes any difference. The important thing is, are you becoming reliant on these things to comfort you and to protect you, or do you keep in mind that your comfort and protection comes from God alone?

[CatherineM]

I always prepared properly for hurricane season, and now prepare for winter in case we get snowed in for an extended period of time. That is just reasonable prudence. I don't do it out of fear any more than I keep my medicine cabinet stocked with bandaids out of fear. My dad lived through the depression as an orphan and the war years. I've gone through cold war nuclear fears, having 3 brothers in Vietnam at the same time, inflation at 20%, hurricanes from Andrew to Katrina, and one thing has been constant. That constant is that you prepare for the worst, but pray for the best, and things usually fall somewhere in between, but at some point the crisis is over one way or the other, and life goes on. If life doesn't go on, then neither does the fear.

When it comes to financial crisis, the best thing is to live within your means so that you can save for rainy days. They will come. I had to learn that the hard way. I expected to be a senior partner or judge by now, not a cripple living on a small pension.

[MithLuin]

Yes, there are a few things to balance out here.

[list]One, if you have a family, you have a responsibility to care for that family. You cannot live like St. Francis of Assisi (who took that passage to heart and lived it in all sincerity)...and raise a family. St. Francis could live as he did specifically because of his vow of celibacy. I think it is crystal clear that in his life, anyway, the vow of celibacy was at the service of Lady Poverty.

Two, you cannot prepare for every disaster. There are things that can happen that will wipe you out no matter your preparation. Hence the man in the parable, whose life was demanded of him, despite his storehouses.

Three, you must not take the blessings you have been given and hoard them for yourself. If you have excess and abundance, morally, you should share with the less fortunate.

Four, we must always trust in the Lord. 'This too shall pass' is a fairly Christian sentiment, and as [b]Catherine M[/b] points out, if it doesn't, we will . Death comes for us all in the end, and no amount of preparedness will stave it off. Death is also not the worst thing that can happen to us - dying unprepared to meet our Maker is worse. [/list]


Conclusion? Go ahead and stock up and be prepared for emergencies. If there is a reasonable risk of being snowed in or caught in a hurricane, have supplies on hand to help you and/or your family live through that. If your job security is non-existent, have a little extra saved (food or cash) to get through a time with no paycheck. These things are all reasonable.

If you have no family responsibilities, you may cast your cares upon the Lord and rely on Divine Providence for even your daily needs. That generally requires that you be willing to do without, but you will find that He does provide.

Should you build a nuclear fallout shelter and stock it with a year's worth of provisions so that, if disaster strikes, you'll be safe, your neighbors being SOL? Mmmm, not too Christian there. Make sure that 'being prepared' means thinking ahead and having necessities on hand...not a bunker mentality that caters to your personal physical needs while ignoring your neighbors and that there is more to life than keeping the body fed.

What are you afraid of? Ask yourself that question honestly, and then take your fears to God in prayer.

[dairygirl4u2c]

the most common, to me, sensical response to these situation, is that-- "God helps those who help themselves". people have to take that philosophy in life, or else they get no where. like hippie types or 'care free' types who are known for trying to 'trust in God' only to find they're getting no where.
id say that verse is more about, 'go do what you are gonna do- follow God's will- and you dont have to have it all figured out first- things will take care of themselves, the gaps will fill in themselves'. and normally they do, and if God wants them to be filled in, they will be. (not always God's will, but the verse is good for what it says, not an exposition of every possibility)

Edited August 27, 2010 by dairygirl4u2c

[dairygirl4u2c]

per 'troubled times' and 'ends times' etc, if that's a concern. id think the main problem in interpretation is that balance, which i think was purposefully vague--

"You should be able to know the sign of the times." v. "No one can know the hour or day".

You can know the hour or day, but you can know the sign of the times. so, are the times being signed to us? i like that question more.

[Winchester]

What profit a man if he store up provisions but is eaten by a zombie because his security was lax?

[Socrates]

[quote name='Cure of Ars' timestamp='1282875974' post='2163888']
Due to current turbulent times I have found myself being attracted to survivalism and the prepper lifestyle. There are so many unknowns and dangers that can befall anyone at any moment that it feels foolish not to prepare for the worst. I feel the need to store years worth of food and water for my family to survive any possible calamity. But I have something that pulls on my conscious. Biblical verses like the following haunt my decisions on how much to invest into prepping.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat (or drink), or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?' or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?' All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. (Matthew 6:25-32)

Then he told them a parable. "There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, 'What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?' And he said, 'This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, "Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!" But God said to him, 'You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?' Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God." He said to (his) disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Notice the ravens: they do not sow or reap; they have neither storehouse nor barn, yet God feeds them. How much more important are you than birds! Can any of you by worrying add a moment to your lifespan? If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest? (Luke 12:16-26)

Now if didn’t worry about my life I would not invest much into prepping. So how much should be invested into worse case scenarios? Is a bug out bag and a bug out retreat biblical? Even birds migrate south for the winter. 1...2...3...DEBATE
[/quote]
I don't think there's anything wrong with "survivalism" or preparing for potential disaster, so long as one keeps material things in perspective to the spiritual, and doesn't become unduly obsessive about it.

Would you consider it wrong to work to try to get a good career, and make sound financial investments for the future?

I think the Gospel is primarily condemning a materialistic attitude, or putting all one's stock in material things, or excessively worrying and fretting about them.

There's nothing wrong with being prepared for when disaster strikes, so one can save himself and others if necessary. I've seen people self-righteously look down even on gun-owners as being somehow cowardly and lacking proper trust in God, but I think they'd be grateful if someone with a gun saved them from an attacker.

Personally, I'd regard spending on provisions and arms as better than spending on fancy cars and and designer clothes and other forms of conspicuous consumption.

[Cure of Ars]

I have been thinking about this a lot and you could make a reasonable argument that Noah was the first prepper. And Joseph saved up 7 years of food for the 7 years of famine. So maybe the answer is dependent on what each person is being called too. I am personally struggling with figuring out how far to go and how do you know when you are going to far. Moderation and balance are really not my strong suit. I have an all or nothing type of personality. Right now I know that I need to pull away from the whole survivalism thing because I was becoming too stressed from running Zombie type scenarios through my mind. The more I invested in prepping the more vulnerable I felt in lacking something that could potentially save my family.

[dominicansoul]

I have heard that Mother Angelica stored up food and stuffs as a response to the Y2K scare...but think about it...she has a lot of mouths to feed...

[MithLuin]

Whereas this statement can be found in the way of life of one of the more austere/radical Franciscan groups:

[quote][i][In a description of the kitchen]:[/i] No more than a two or three day supply of food, or a week at most, excepting those things that are commonly stored in bulk.

...

The Friars of this Fraternity do not have, use, or accept money in any form.
The Friary and the Friars will not have bank accounts, stocks, bonds, savings accounts, or credit cards.
The Friars will not create nor have created for them any corporation, by whatever name, to receive, hold, or use money for them. [url=http://www.franciscanbrothersminor.com/FBM/Home.html](source)[/url][/quote]

Clearly not for everyone, but they rely on God's providence to provide them with food each day. I've lived that type of lifestyle very temporarily, and not that extreme - while I personally had no money with me, the group was able to have money, and the people who would provide donations for us were lined up in advance. So...we didn't know what, specifically, we'd be eating, but we didn't really have to worry about starving.

I think that learning to rely on God is very, very good; and that not everyone can approach life that way, because then...who would provide the donations to groups like this?

That is why I will say that what is true for [i]everyone[/i] (those with families and those in religious life) is: "Cast your cares upon the Lord, for he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7 In other words...do not [i]worry[/i], and learn to trust God!

But yes, it's okay to put some jugs of water in the basement and know where you keep a flashlight with batteries and have a smoke alarm installed in your house. Being prepared is not the same thing as being worried.

[Winchester]

My money's on Christianity, but only because of God.

[Paddington]

A St. Bernard would come in handy.

[Ed Normile]

Shoot ! , I was hoping this was going to be a thread about eating the dead to survive starving. I remember many years ago the story of a soccer team who crashed landed in the himalayas and were stranded on a barren ice covered mountain top, they had no food but were able to melt water on the fuselage to drink, after over a month they decided to survive the months of severe weather ahead they had to eat flesh of the dead passengers who they had stacked near the plane. This was a big story and even a book and movie and I remember how they played up the catholic soccer team members role in the tale too. Oh well, maybe another time.

ed

[Sternhauser]

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Edited September 1, 2010 by Sternhauser